| | | | |  | | By Bianca Quilantan | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Dana Nickel SIX MONTHS IN — Tension is still high at a number of colleges as the Israel-Hamas conflict continues to roil campuses. — “Since Oct. 7, Jewish students around the country have faced an extraordinary amount of anti-Jewish activism, including harassment and even assault and battery as well vandalism,” said Ken Marcus, founder of the Brandeis Center and former assistant education secretary for civil rights under the Trump administration. “Even after the passage of months, the problem remains extremely painful for a large number of students. … Things have not cooled down.” — Things are likely to especially heat up on Capitol Hill this week as leaders of Columbia University are set to testify before the House Education and the Workforce Committee. The lineup includes university President Minouche Shafik and board of trustees co-chairs Claire Shipman and David Greenwald. Many expect a similar showdown as witnessed in December’s antisemitism hearing where lawmakers demanded answers on how the presidents of Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania have responded to antisemitism on their campuses.
|  A woman participates in a rally at Columbia University in support of Israel in response to a neighboring student rally in support of Palestine at the university on Oct.12. | Spencer Platt/Getty Images | — The fallout of the December hearing came swiftly. The presidents’ lawyerly answers were slammed as inadequate by lawmakers, alumni, donors and more. Two presidents resigned and donors threatened to pull or stop their contributions to those schools. The Penn Fund, for example, has seen so far a 21 percent decline and receiving “less money from fewer donors in 2024 than in any year since at least 2020,” according to The Daily Pennsylvanian. — Shafik was originally asked to be part of that hearing, but couldn’t make it because of scheduling conflicts. Nevertheless, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), the chair of the committee, is still calling on Columbia to testify because she says “some of the worst cases of antisemitic assaults, harassment, and vandalism on campus have occurred” on its campus. — The committee is already investigating Columbia’s response to antisemitism. Lawmakers say that the university has allowed an “environment of pervasive antisemitism” to exist for decades. Marcus commended the hearings and investigation, saying that because of them, “there's much more public awareness of the antisemitism problem than there had ever been before.” Jewish students and those supporting Israel have reported incidents of violence and antisemitism, and pro-Palestinian student activists have also reported doxxing, assault and Islamophobia.
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Pro-Palestinian supporters gather for a protest at Columbia University on Oct. 12. | Yuki Iwamura/AP | — The Education Department is also investigating Columbia. The university was listed in the first announcement of the agency’s investigations into reported incidents of antisemitism and Islamophobia. Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine Lhamon, however, has cautioned that just because a school is under investigation “does not reflect a conclusion that the law has been violated.” — All schools that receive federal funds must comply with Title VI, a federal law that bars discrimination based on shared ancestry, ethnic characteristics or national origin. Schools who violate the law could be at risk of losing their federal funding if they do not comply. — No resolutions have been announced yet from the department’s investigations; the case against Penn was dismissed because of a similar complaint filed in court. The Anti-Defamation League, the Brandeis Center and other groups combating antisemitism are lauding the department’s efforts to keep investigating incidents. ADL Director Jonathan Greenblatt said he wants to see these investigations “handled in a more expeditious way,” but added that he believes "it will require more resources for that to happen.” IT’S MONDAY, APRIL 15. WELCOME TO WEEKLY EDUCATION. WHAT SHOULD WE BE LOOKING OUT FOR THIS WEEK? Drop me a line at bquilantan@politico.com. Send tips to my colleagues Mackenzie Wilkes at mwilkes@politico.com and Juan Perez Jr. at jperez@politico.com. And follow us: @Morning_Edu and @POLITICOPro.
| | A message from Sallie Mae®: It’s estimated that more than $100 million in scholarships go unclaimed each year, and too often it’s because of a lack of awareness or misconceptions about eligibility. As an education solutions company and responsible private lender, Sallie Mae connects students to free money like scholarships before borrowing. See how we’re helping students access millions of dollars in free money for higher education. | | | | | VIEW FROM THE BOARD — Last week, a group of pro-Palestinian Berkeley Law students disrupted Dean Erwin Chemerinsky’s celebratory dinner party for about 60 students at his home. The incident turned into a confrontation, but has also sparked another debate about free speech. — POLITICO’s Melanie Mason spoke with John A. Pérez, who sits on the Board of Regents for the University of California, the governing body of 10 campus public university system that has nearly 300,000 students. Pérez said the student protest at Chemerinsky’s home crossed a line and described how campus leaders can do more to push back on what he sees as a dangerous surge in campus antisemitism. Here’s a short snippet: MASON: Do you think that the students stepped over the line by interrupting this dinner? Did the dean or his wife, professor Catherine Fisk, step over the line in shutting down their remarks? PÉREZ: The students overstepped the line by disrupting a purely social event at a private home that was intended to celebrate the collective accomplishments of all the third-year law students. They telegraphed their opposition by calling for a boycott [in advance of the event] — that was fine, that was completely within their rights. But they did it in a horrific way, by employing an antisemitic caricature of Dean Chemerinsky … When Professor Fisk again asked them to leave and they didn’t, and then she confronted and tried to take away the mic, I’m sure in retrospect, she wished she would have handled that slightly differently. But that doesn’t forgive the act of the students disrupting and violating the private personal space and refusing to leave when asked.
| | | | Get critical policy news and analysis inside New York State. Use our Legislative Tracker to see what’s on the Albany agenda. POLITICO Pro. Inside New York. Learn more. | | | | | Want to receive this newsletter every weekday? Subscribe to POLITICO Pro. You’ll also receive daily policy news and other intelligence you need to act on the day’s biggest stories. MASON: What should be the consequences for these students? PÉREZ: So these are my individual opinions as somebody who believes in the right to protest. … Students broadly have been put on notice that if there’s further disruptions, folks will be turned over to Student Conduct and appropriate evaluations will be made. The question becomes whether the campus decides to engage in a student conduct investigation of this and whether the students involved will say they didn’t have fair notice that this crossed the line. That’s something that the campus has got to wrestle with. … They can come to the conclusion that students could have misinterpreted this because it’s hosted by the dean as being the same as anything on campus. And the campus can also come to the conclusion that my God, these are third-year law students at one of the top law schools in the country, and that they should have a better understanding about the consequences of their actions. Dive into the rest of the Q&A.
| | | | A message from Sallie Mae®:   | | | | | LIBRARIES IN COURT — Idaho Republican Gov. Brad Little signed a bill into law last week that will require school or public libraries to move materials considered to be "harmful to minors" or face litigation, POLITICO’s Dana Nickel reports. — H.B. 710 allows Idaho children or their parents to file legal claims against libraries over harmful materials. If the libraries don't move the material to a section "designated for adults only" within a certain number of days of receiving the claim, children or parents could receive $250 in statutory damages. — Georgia, Louisiana, West Virginia, Montana, Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, North Dakota, Missouri and Texas are other GOP-led states that have considered or advanced similar legislation. — In March, the American Library Association reported that public libraries saw a 92 percent increase in challenges to titles for censorship in 2023.
| | | | POLITICO IS BACK AT THE 2024 MILKEN INSTITUTE GLOBAL CONFERENCE: POLITICO will again be your eyes and ears at the 27th Annual Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles from May 5-8 with exclusive, daily, reporting in our Global Playbook newsletter. Suzanne Lynch will be on the ground covering the biggest moments, behind-the-scenes buzz and on-stage insights from global leaders in health, finance, tech, philanthropy and beyond. Get a front-row seat to where the most interesting minds and top global leaders confront the world’s most pressing and complex challenges — subscribe today. | | | | | | | | | — Small private colleges are struggling to keep their doors open as declining enrollment leads to financial instability: CNN — Under budget pressure, D.C. public schools may eliminate 200 positions: The Washington Post — Nearly a quarter of K-12 teachers faced a gun lockdown last year: Axios
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