DePaul University President Robert Manuel testified before the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce, apologizing for any harm caused to Jewish students, faculty and staff since the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Manuel joined the presidents of Haverford College and California Polytechnic State University at a heated hearing on Capitol Hill Wednesday morning, addressing antisemitism on college campuses in the wake of Israel’s response to the attacks and subsequent war in Gaza.
DePaul has taken concrete steps to ensure Jewish students are safe on campus since the attack, Manuel told the committee, including suspending pro-Palestinian groups on campus, such as Students for Justice in Palestine, and banning another group called Behind Enemy Lines.
The university has also invited a former Anti-Defamation League expert to assist with “Jewish engagement on campus,” Manuel said, and created a dedicated task force on antisemitism.
In April 2024, student groups at DePaul, a longtime locus of student organizing in solidarity with Palestinians, launched an encampment to protest the war, joining demonstrations on campuses across the country. The demonstration lasted 17 days and resulted in almost $180,000 in damage, according to Manuel.
In the past year, Manuel said the university has made “substantial investments” to increase security and safety across its Chicago campuses and has commissioned an external review of security programs to improve campus safety.
“Going forward, you have my commitment that we are focused on continuing to make real progress and take action,” Manuel said. “As a person of faith, I’m personally committed to confronting antisemitism wherever it appears in our institutions, in our communities, and in ourselves.”
A year after the encampments went up on college campuses across the country, House Republicans have placed college presidents on the hot seat to question their toleration of antisemitism at their universities.
“We’ve held and will continue to hold these universities accountable as they choose to stand idly by rather than meaningfully address the harassment of and discrimination against Jewish students on their campuses,” committee Chairman Tim Walberg said.
U.S. Rep. Mary Miller questioned Manuel heavily, calling DePaul’s encampment the “worst” of the three universities represented at the hearing. Miller called the encampment, which lasted for 17 days, a “hotbed of antisemitism.” Miller asked Manuel how many students were punished as a result of their participation.
“The moment we realized that safety was being jeopardized, we moved with the Chicago Police Department to abandon the encampment,” Manuel said.
The university investigated eight student groups for their part in the encampments, according to Manuel. Two students involved in the encampments were suspended and placed on probation, resulting in the loss of university resources, including financial aid, Manuel told the committee, which includes 21 Republicans and 16 Democrats.
Following Miller’s fractious line of questioning, U.S. Rep. Lisa McClain told the panel, which included Wendy Raymond, president of Haverford College in Haverford, Pennsylvania, and Jeffrey Armstrong, president of California Polytechnic in San Luis Obispo “actions speak louder than words, and we need action.” McClain zeroed in on DePaul, questioning the university’s response to campus protests since October 2023.
Referencing a “pro-Hamas” rally on Oct. 19, 2023, which resulted in the physical assault of a Jewish student as well as the encampment that arose on campus six months later in April, McClain questioned DePaul’s inability to snuff out the protests faster.
“It took you three weeks,” McClain said. “Would you say that that is an acceptable amount of time for action?”
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McClain then read DePaul’s campus demonstration guidelines to Manuel, which say demonstrations should not be “violent or otherwise threaten the safety of demonstrators” or block access, create excessive noise, obstruct views or disrupt university operations.
When Manuel apologized for DePaul’s delayed response, McClain shot back quickly that the president’s “apologies are a little hollow.”
Committee members berated the college presidents over events on their campuses in the last year. U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y. and Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., touted their history of having university presidents terminated for their failure to adequately answer questions posed to them.
“They can go talk to the two chairmen of the board and the one university president in Florida who no longer have their jobs because of me,” Fine said. “So I encourage you to keep that in mind when you answer my questions.”
Several committee members questioned the productivity of the hearing. Instead of engaging in the topic of antisemitism on college campuses “genuinely and constructively,” U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Ore., said the committee is holding “another performative hearing” in the “majority’s battle against higher education.”
Referencing the rally of white supremacists in Charlottesville in August 2017, where a group marched holding torches and chanting “Jews will not replace us,” Bonamici noted the lack of hearings following that incident and President Donald Trump’s response that “there were fine people on both sides.” When violence erupted, two police officers and one counterprotester were killed.
“I don’t recall the Republican majority calling that out,” Bonamici said. “Let’s denounce and condemn all instances of antisemitism, including those from colleagues and the administration. If we truly want to protect Jewish Americans, we need to speak out, regardless of this source, and not turn a blind eye when anti-semitic attacks come from leaders of a political party.”
Bonamici reminded committee members of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights as a means to address antisemitism on college campuses. Trump signed an executive order in March directing Secretary of Education Lisa McMahon to facilitate the dismantling of the federal agency.
“When Jewish students say that they feel unsafe, we have to take that seriously,” U.S. Rep. Alma Adams, D.-N.C., said. “That also means upholding civil rights under Title VI, not replacing legal standards with partisan scorecards. That means resourcing the Office for Civil Rights, not cutting it.”
U.S. Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif. said the committee’s concern over antisemitism on college campuses seemed to be “very hollow and empty,” as they’re not concerned about actually investigating discrimination claims. David Cole, a professor of law and public policy at Georgetown University, who also testified before the committee, voiced his agreement.
“They should be calling Secretary of Education Linda McMahon before the committee and asking her why she has decimated the very office that is supposed to be enforcing anti-discrimination law,” Cole said.
Investigations, rather than these hearings, Cole said, are a better approach.
“That’s what faculty committees do when they consider these kinds of complaints, that’s what OCR did until it was decimated by this administration. That is not what I have seen this committee do in eight hearings,” Cole said. “Instead, all they’ve done is bring in presidents and berate them based on the committee’s version of the facts, which may or may not be true.”
U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va. agreed. Despite the eight committee hearings since Oct. 7, there has been “no concrete action to actually protect any students from discrimination,” he said.
University campuses have always been places to debate difficult topics or hear opinions one may disagree with, which is vital to protecting free speech and ensuring students don’t suffer from discrimination, Scott said.
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“That’s a difficult balance to achieve, and that’s why dedicated investigators are key to keeping campuses both free and safe,” Scott said. “We must tolerate offensive speech even when listeners experience it as deeply harmful, because giving government officials to determine whose views can be heard and whose should be silenced is a greater danger.”