At today's House Education Committee hearing, Rep. Bob Onder (R-MO) questioned Dr. Robert M. Groves, Interim President of Georgetown University, about the school's ties to Qatar.
00:00Her time has expired, and I recognize the gentleman from Missouri, Mr. Ronder.
00:04Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thanks to all the witnesses for being here today.
00:09Chancellor Lyons, the UAW represents 48,000 academic workers in the University of California system.
00:20How many on the Berkeley campus?
00:24Are you aware?
00:25I don't have that.
00:27Yes, it does.
00:27Well, the UAW has endorsed encampments that feature imagery supporting terrorism,
00:35has led student sessions on how to agitate on campus.
00:38Union leaders have even come to campus participating in anti-Semitic chants.
00:45A microbiology grad student filed a lawsuit, Yanov v. UAW 4811,
00:52alleging that the union's activity contributed to a hostile work environment in violation of Title VII and the California Fair Employment Act.
01:05In your opinion, does the UAW contribute to anti-Semitism on the University of California, Berkeley campus, or in the system?
01:14It would be inappropriate for me to speak to a case that is clearly in litigation, so I won't do that.
01:26I think it's also important to understand that unions are independent organizations, right?
01:33We don't control them.
01:34They don't control us, so it's not something that we have any direct control over.
01:43Okay.
01:44Now, here is an area where the union does seek to interact with Berkeley.
01:51The UC UAW strongly supports BDS boycott, divest, and sanction and is looking to impose it on the U of California system in January and April of 2024.
02:07The UAW passed resolutions to that effect.
02:11If in the next round of collective bargaining the UAW demanded a provision that implements BDS,
02:17would you counsel for agreeing to such a provision or oppose it?
02:23It is the stated policy of the University of California that we do not boycott countries.
02:32We do not – we have specific rules for when divestment can be considered,
02:38and we're very systematic about how we apply those rules.
02:42I can speak for myself personally.
02:45Personally, I would oppose it.
02:49And it's been reported that the UC UAW prepared a list of members of the UC Board of Regents
02:58with Jewish or Israeli ties and targeted them for investigation.
03:06What if UAW proposed a provision under which Berkeley and other University of California schools
03:13would disclose to the Union any grants, donors, programs, or professors with ties to Israel?
03:18Would you counsel for agreeing to such a provision?
03:24There were some facts on the front end of your question that I take to be true,
03:30but I have no information on, so I can't comment on that whatsoever.
03:36If they were asking for – in general, we do not provide information to the public or to outside
03:47entities like unions, and if it's publicly available, then it's publicly available, they can find it.
03:53So in general, we would not provide that kind of information unless there's some legal reason why we needed to.
04:03Mr. Groves, so Georgetown has a number of foreign campuses, Jakarta, Florence, London.
04:12I was wondering – I found myself wondering, how did the Qatar connection and Qatar campus of Georgetown University come to be?
04:21Did Qatar approach Georgetown or vice versa, or how did that work?
04:26This happened way before my time, so it's only through oral history that I know the answer.
04:32How long has it been?
04:332005, so it's been 20 years ago.
04:37And my understanding is that the vision of the Qatar Foundation at the time was to build a group of Western universities in Doha
04:50that would offer Western education to the region in a vision that Qatar would gradually become a hub for higher education and research.
05:04Western-style, Jesuit-style higher education in the Middle East.
05:09I'm out of time.
05:10Thank you very much.
05:11I yield back.
05:12I thank the gentleman.
05:14Now I recognize the gentlelady from Georgia, Ms. McMath.
05:17Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to our –
