'You Do Receive Federal Money, Do You Not?': Ryan Mackenzie Grills College President

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At Wednesday's House Education Committee hearing, Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (R-PA) questioned college presidents about antisemitism on college campuses.

Transcript

00:00Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate today's hearing on stopping the spread of anti-Semitism

00:04on American campuses, because we do see a very real problem that is occurring all across the

00:11country. Anti-Semitism has been around for a long time, but ever since October 7th, it has

00:18come out into the light in a much more shocking and offensive fashion, particularly on our

00:25university campuses. And when it presents itself, we appreciate that some of the university

00:31presidents are willing to identify those situations and call them out. And when discrimination

00:36like this goes through a process that you have on your campus and a violation is determined

00:42that it has actually occurred, appropriate punishment is being meted out. That's important

00:49that we recognize that as well. But then accountability for us as legislators is making sure that those

00:57institutions that actually go through that process recognize the discrimination that is

01:03occurring on their campus, hand out punishment. We want to make sure that that is actually

01:08the course of events that's playing out. During the course of this testimony today, two of the

01:14university presidents have been very transparent with the aggregate information that they were

01:20willing to share about the punishments that were handed out on their university campus.

01:24One was not. One has evaded that conversation a number of times, saying that she was unable

01:30to provide that information. Under pressured testimony, twice though, you have acknowledged that punishment

01:37has occurred. So you have violated your own standard that you would not disclose or discuss any

01:42punishments that were occurring on your university campus.

01:46So my question to you, to the president, Dr. Raymond from Haverford College, is will you

01:52go back to your college campus, collect that aggregate information, we don't need any personal information,

01:59and share it with this committee about the punishments that have been handed out from your university

02:03to students or others who were involved in this discriminatory practice on your college campus?

02:08Representative McKenzie, I appreciate your requesting that, and I can commit to our practices around

02:22this. We do not share our results of our disciplinary processes on our campus or publicly.

02:33And that's a problem. So that is a problem. You do receive federal money, do you not? In some way,

02:41either directly or indirectly through student loans or grants to your university.

02:44We do, in a wonderful partnership with the federal government.

02:49Well, that partnership may be in jeopardy, because if you will not provide transparency and

02:54accountability like your other colleagues here, it calls into question your actions on your campus.

02:59And so when people are concerned about discrimination that is happening on your college campus,

03:04which the list is pretty long at this point, it's very concerning the amount of incidents that

03:10have piled up at your college campus under your tenure, and yet you won't share any information

03:16about the punishment that has been handed out. When discrimination that you acknowledge has happened

03:22on your campus, you won't share that anybody has actually been punished for that.

03:28Representative, the effects of what have happened at Haverford on our Jewish students and community are

03:35real and deeply troubling to me, and I am in this work, committed to getting it right. We have had many

03:44policy changes since October 7th in order to do this work better than we were able to do then,

03:51and I commit to that work on an ongoing basis with deep empathy and care for all of our Jewish

03:59students, staff and faculty. I appreciate that statement, but it is lacking in transparency and

04:05accountability about the end results of punishment that are handed out to students and faculty that are on

04:12your campus that participate in discriminatory actions. That should just be a baseline for

04:19receiving federal funding. You're willing to acknowledge that discriminatory actions have

04:24happened on your campus, you're willing to say that we are going to take some kind of action when that

04:30does occur, you're going to go through a process, but then you won't actually show those of us that are

04:36responsible for providing federal funding that you have actually done anything at the end of the day.

04:42So that is a very concerning course of action, and I think it's something that Congress should

04:46probably look into, saying that there needs to be transparency, there needs to be accountability,

04:50and those institutions that don't want to provide that and want to be evasive in remarks before

04:55Congress, want to avoid transparency and accountability in their actually publishing of the results of,

05:03in aggregate numbers, the fact that they have taken action against discriminatory behavior,

05:08I think that that probably warrants a further investigation. The Department of Education

05:13should be looking into that, and ultimately they should be withholding funds from somebody who

05:17does not want to provide transparent and accurate information about how they are handling discrimination

05:23on their college campus. Thank you NIU. The gentleman's time has expired. I thank the gentleman.

05:27I recognize the gentleman from Washington, Mr. Baumgartner.

05:31Thank you, Mr. Chair. Dr. Raymond, how many Americans were killed on

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