College presidents were grilled again by the House Education Committee. The committee has held a series of hearings about antisemitism and protests, often focusing on private Ivy League schools. The focus has shifted to include public universities and the same tensions and allegations played out during a tense hearing. Ali Rogin reports.
Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.
Geoff Bennett:
College presidents were grilled again today by the House Education Committee. The committee has held a series of hearings about antisemitism and protests, often focusing on private Ivy League schools.
The blowback to these hearings has led in part to the departure of some presidents. Today, the committee's focus shifted to include public universities, but some of the same tensions and allegations played out during a tense hearing.
Ali Rogin has our report.
Ali Rogin:
A contentious morning on Capitol Hill.
Michael Schill, President, Northwestern University:
I want to question the premise of your question.
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY):
No, no, no, no, I'm asking the questions. You're answering.
Ali Rogin:
University leaders were in Washington today to testify again about how their schools have handled protests and antisemitic incidents.
This time, it was the leaders of UCLA, Rutgers and Northwestern universities. This latest hearing comes after weeks of encampments, demonstrations and crackdowns across the country. Almost 3,000 protesters have been arrested since April.
Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC):
October 7 ignited a powder keg of pro-terror campus fervor, a shocking spectacle for the American public.
Ali Rogin:
Virginia Foxx is the chair of the committee who has led the series of hearings about colleges.
Rep. Virginia Foxx:
Each of you should be ashamed of your decisions that allowed antisemitic encampments to endanger Jewish students.
Ali Rogin:
Republican lawmakers focused much of their attention today on the encampments and the efforts to dismantle them. In the case of Rutgers and Northwestern, their presidents were able to work out agreements with pro-Palestinian protesters.
Michael Schill:
Bringing in police because of the size of our police force and the resources would have endangered our police, they would have endangered our students, and they would have endangered our student affairs staff.
So then we made the decision to talk to our students, to model the behavior that we want to be engaged in, that dialogue, rather than force, and we had a de-escalation.
Ali Rogin:
Many Republicans chastised the university leaders for negotiating with protesters, instead of handing out expulsions.
Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA):
You agreed to the demands of those who are trying to change university policy in an antisemitic way, and you rewarded their tactics of using force.
Ali Rogin:
At UCLA last month, violence by counterprotesters with Israeli flags against the pro-Palestinian encampment went on for hours before campus police responded.
The LAPD and the California Highway Patrol were called in later. The campus police chief was reassigned from his position earlier this week. Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota lit into UCLA Chancellor Gene Block.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN):
Why did you not immediately send the police that were standing by, your campus police, law enforcement, to intervene?
Gene Block, UCLA Chancellor:
We tried. We notified — as soon as we saw the violence, we notified all of our mutual aid partners. We tried to get police there as quickly as possible.
Rep. Ilhan Omar:
You should be ashamed in the fact that you failed your students. You should be ashamed for letting a peaceful protest gathering get hijacked by an angry mob.
Ali Rogin:
The encampment at UCLA was removed last month, but, today, protesters erected a new blockade.
There was another key difference with this hearing from earlier ones. Public schools like UCLA and Rutgers don't have the latitude to restrict free speech, the same way private universities do.
Gene Block:
As a public university, UCLA is subject to a dual legal mandate, the First Amendment obligation to protect free speech on campus and the obligation under federal laws to protect students from discrimination and harassment. This balance is often difficult to achieve.
Ali Rogin:
Once again, lawmakers, mostly Republicans, hammered college officials over what they saw as inadequate discipline for some students and faculty, especially for any antisemitic remarks or conduct.
Rutgers' President Holloway said four students were suspended, while Northwestern and UCLA said investigations were ongoing.
Michael Schill:
We didn't — have not yet suspended or expelled students. It does not mean that students have not received discipline.
Ali Rogin:
Schill said Northwestern terminated some staff, while Rutgers and UCLA said disciplinary proceedings were ongoing. For his part, Holloway pushed back at the description of his school.
Jonathan Holloway, President, Rutgers University:
I certainly disagreed that — with the characterization of Rutgers being a hotbed of antisemitism. We do everything we can to promote the security and safety of all of our students and to have a community of care.
Ali Rogin:
Protests may have died down at many campuses as the school year draws to a close, but many commencement ceremonies have been canceled or interrupted by protesters.
At Harvard today, hundreds of students walked out of commencement chanting "Free Palestine."
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Ali Rogin.
