Columbia University’s president and other school officials faced a grilling on Capitol Hill Wednesday over their handling of antisemitism on campus. 

Officials acknowledged there is more work to do. 

“Antisemitism has no place on our campus and I am personally committed to doing everything I can to confront it directly,” President Nemat Shafik told a panel of House lawmakers.  

What You Need To Know

  • Columbia University's president and other leaders testified before a House panel Wednesday about antisemitism on campus 

  • Repeatedly, lawmakers - including New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik - pressed Columbia’s president about comments made by school faculty, including reported statements praising Hamas

  • All four Columbia officials who testified explicitly said that calling for the genocide of Jews would violate the school’s code of conduct
  • Additional hearings are expected. New York City Schools Chancellor David Banks has told reporters he has been called to testify before the committee next month

Six months on, the war between Israel and Hamas continues to spark campus protests. Comments from faculty members have grabbed headlines. 

The Republican chair of the committee, Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, labeled the school a “hotbed” of antisemitism and hate. 

Repeatedly, lawmakers pressed Columbia’s president about incidents involving school faculty, including reported comments made by visiting scholar Mohamed Abdou siding with Hamas. 

“On my watch, faculty who make remarks that cross the line in terms of antisemitism, there will be consequences for them,” Shafik said.

Pressed by Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York as to whether Abdou was one of those facing consequences, Shafik said, “He will never work at Columbia again.”

All four Columbia officials who testified explicitly said that calling for the genocide of Jews would violate the school’s code of conduct - a question that tripped up leaders from other elite universities back in December. 

Asked a similar question by Stefanik at that hearing, then-Penn president Liz Magill said, “It is a context-dependent decision.”

That line of questioning threw Stefanik - a potential Donald Trump vice presidential pick - into the spotlight, and contributed to the resignation of the leaders of Harvard and Penn. 

Progressive lawmakers on the panel Wednesday raised their own concerns. 

“What I'm hearing from students and people in my district who go to Columbia is they feel that there's not the space for divergent opinions or thoughts as it relates to the State of Israel, or what's happening in Gaza right now,” said Rep. Jamaal Bowman. 

Bowman is currently facing a Democratic primary challenge in his Bronx and Westchester County district, where the Israel-Hamas war is a defining issue. 

This is not the last of these hearings on antisemitism. New York City Schools Chancellor David Banks has told reporters he has been called to testify before the committee next month.