The College Fix

House leader says university isn’t cooperating with investigation

Northwestern University is facing continued scrutiny after a U.S. House committee accused leaders of obstructing an investigation about campus antisemitism.

The Evanston, Illinois university’s antisemitism taskforce recently disbanded after many of its members resigned.

University spokesperson Jon Yates told The College Fix in a recent email that Northwestern complied with the House Committee on Education and the Workforce’s request, submitting “several hundred” pages to them by the deadline.

However, committee Chairwoman Rep. Virginia Foxx contested the university’s statement in a June letter.

The North Carolina Republican accused the Tier 1 university of not cooperating with the committee’s request for information, including “negotiations with the [pro-Palestinian] encampment, data on student and faculty disciplinary cases, and Board of Trustees records since the formation of the encampment.”

Instead, the university submitted “20 pages of public mass communications, such as campuswide email messages from President [Michael] Schill,” Foxx wrote.

According to her letter, of the 233 pages Northwestern submitted to the committee, 182 “are not actually responsive to any of the Committee’s requests.”

Foxx said in the letter that “Northwestern’s record suggests that it does not take complying with the Committee’s oversight efforts or upholding its Title VI obligations to protect Jewish students seriously.”

“Both are unacceptable,” she wrote.

Richard Goldberg, an alumnus of Northwestern and senior advisor for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told The Fix in a recent email he agrees with the House’s subpoena threat.

“We’re never going to know the truth about what’s going on behind the scenes without a congressional subpoena,” he said.

Goldberg called Northwestern’s leadership “rotten to the core,” saying they are employing “a strategy of denial, evasion and obfuscation to preserve a system that enables rather than prevents antisemitism.”

University’s antisemitism taskforce quits

In addition, the university President’s Advisory Committee on Preventing Antisemitism and Hate disbanded just five months into its work after seven members resigned.

The Fix contacted 11 members of the former committee in recent weeks. Three declined to comment while the remaining eight did not respond to emails.

President Schill (pictured) formed the committee in January, and announced its end in early May. In his testimony to the House committee in May, he said it dissolved because the “committee could not reach a consensus on specific proposals.”

After its dissolution, a university news release expressed Northwestern’s commitment to continuing “the ongoing work of combatting antisemitism, anti-Muslim hate and all forms of discrimination and harassment.”

Schill’s office did not responded to two requests for comment from The Fix via email, asking about the former committee and the university’s plans to address antisemitism.

Meanwhile, Goldberg told The Fix the Advisory Committee was “an obvious sham from the beginning,” and it was “stacked with Israel-hating faculty and even a student representing the most antisemitic student group on campus.”

“No committees are needed to address antisemitism – we have Title VI, we have an internationally recognized definition for antisemitism, and we have a code of conduct that should be enforced,” Goldberg said.

House committee, alumnus call for action

Goldberg told The Fix the university could begin addressing the problem by nullifying the “unlawful agreement reached between the president and the Hamas encampment.”

In the agreement, the Illinois university promised to offer five full scholarships to Palestinian students, hire “two [Palestinian] faculty per year for two years,” and provide a house for Middle Eastern and Muslim students.

Northwestern also agreed to create a committee to review its investments in exchange for protesters disbanding their encampment, The College Fix reported.

However, during a Congressional hearing, President Schill said many of the programs and promises were in the works prior to the encampment. For example, Schill said that the university already was working on a house for Muslim students so they could pray. He referenced similar buildings for Jewish, Catholic, and Lutheran students.

Meanwhile, Goldberg said he believes “faculty that assaulted campus police should be fired; students who engaged in antisemitism should be expelled; student groups that engaged in antisemitism should be disbanded; and masked protests should be prohibited.”

Thus far, Northwestern has not employed these solutions, according to the House investigation.

Northwestern University President Michael Schill suggests the full-ride scholarships for Palestinian students will also include offers to Israelis. https://t.co/vLLOSO32OT pic.twitter.com/PsihXf6kBY

— The College Fix (@CollegeFix) May 23, 2024

The university “failed to impose a single suspension or expulsion for student antisemitic conduct since October 7,” according to Foxx’s letter.

“Northwestern’s capitulation to its antisemitic encampment and its impeding of the Committee’s oversight are unbecoming of a leading university,” Foxx wrote.

The congresswoman also warned the university’s actions could jeopardize its taxpayer funding, writing Northwestern “appears to be in violation of its obligations to its Jewish students, faculty, and staff under Title VI and defies the Committee’s oversight.”

Goldberg told The Fix he doesn’t think Northwestern’s current leadership can repair its relationship with Jewish students, faculty, and staff at this point.

“Whether due to ideological kinship or weak spines, the administration has proven repeatedly that it will throw the Jews overboard to appease the most radical voices on campus,” he said.

“Schill fundamentally believes he’s the good guy for trying to play Switzerland between Jews and Jew-haters — and that means he will never be part of the change that’s needed,” Goldberg said.

The Fix also contacted Foxx’s office, Northwestern’s Crown Family Center for Jewish and Israel Studies, and its board of trustees twice by email, but none responded. Questions pertained to the subpoena threat, the work of the Advisory Committee, and the university’s plans to address antisemitism.

MORE: Black Muslim’s knife allegation against Jewish roommate falls apart

IMAGE: The Hill/YouTube

Like The College Fix on Facebook / Follow us on Twitter