Washington, D.C. – In case you missed it, today, the House Education and the Workforce Committee Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development held a hearing on the negative impact of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies and practices on college campuses.
Congresswoman Elise Stefanik questioned witnesses about DEI offices at elite universities, including Harvard University, failing to adequately address the concerns of Jewish students regarding the rise of antisemitism on their campuses.
Watch her full line of questioning here.
Read a full transcript of her line of questioning below:
Congresswoman Stefanik: “Dr. Goldfarb, in our on-going investigation of higher ed institutions and the increase of antisemitism that is on display at Harvard, Penn, MIT–the three schools we had here–but beyond that throughout colleges and universities, one theme that is very concerning to me is the offices of DEI on these campuses are inherently antisemitic and I’ll give you an example from my alma mater Harvard. Even prior to the October 7th Hamas attacks against Israel and the failure of Harvard’s leadership to protect Jewish students on campus, hundreds of Jewish students reached out to Harvard’s office of DEI raising concerns about the rise of antisemitism, and they did not even receive a single response from the office of DEI. So can you comment? I know that you’ve watched, as a former dean of Penn’s med school you watch what’s happening on that campus. But can you talk to me about how all these offices of DEI fuel this increase in antisemitism.”
Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, Chair, Do No Harm, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania: “Yeah, you know, we’ve written about it and Dr. Greene here has write about it quite extensively as well. I think the point is that once you start dealing with this identity politics, once you start thinking about people as members of groups, he’s pointed out how Jews suddenly become the oppressor simply because of their prominence in these academic institutions. Once identity politics takes over, then one of the natural consequences of it is divisiveness and antagonism between groups because now we’re putting people into these groups. Yascha Mounk has recently written about this in his book, The Identity Trap, and points out, as a man of the Left, what a great concern this is for American life. And I think what we’re seeing in the antisemitism that’s really sprung up terribly in the last few months has been the natural outcome of thinking about people as members of groups rather than thinking about people as individuals. And I think in medical school, in colleges, and in undergraduates, that’s what we’re seeing. I think that these students have decided, that are parading and demonstrating this antisemitic sentiment, they see the Jewish students as members of a group, not as individuals, not as their friends, not as co-students, but as members of a group. And once you go down that path, this is the consequence of it. This is why it’s so divisive in America.”
Congresswoman Stefanik: “And Dr. Greene, would you like to answer the question as well?”
Dr. Jay Greene, Senior Research Fellow, The Heritage Foundation's Center for Education Policy, Fayetteville, Arkansas: “Sure, I agree entirely with Dr. Goldfarb’s comments and just say that we systematically measured this. In a study we did with 741 DEI officers we examined their social media–Twitter feeds–and we observed shocking levels of antisemitism coming from people with a professional obligation not to do that. It’s as if we studied doctors and found that they were smokers. It’s not something you’d expect from people in an occupation and, yet, DEI staff are active promoters of antisemitism in their social media feeds and it’s not surprising that they also facilitate it on campus.”
