Congress requests documents from UC Berkeley in widening campus antisemitism investigation

Originally Published: 19 MAR 24 13:00 ET By Matt Egan, CNN

(CNN) — The House Education Committee formally requested a wide range of documents from the University of California, Berkeley on Tuesday as part of lawmakers’ growing investigation of antisemitism on college campuses.

In a letter to UC Berkeley leaders, Rep. Virginia Foxx, the Republican chair of the committee, said lawmakers are investigating the school’s “response to antisemitism and its failure to protect Jewish students.”

“We have grave concerns about the inadequacy of UC Berkeley’s response to antisemitism on its campus,” Foxx wrote, citing a list of incidents that have taken place since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.

Representatives at Berkeley were not immediately available for comment.

UC Berkeley joins a growing list of universities drawing Congressional scrutiny.

Foxx’s committee has previously requested documents from Harvard University, Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Foxx previously said Harvard has “absolutely failed” to comply with her committee’s unprecedented subpoena for documents to that Ivy League school.

The letter to UC Berkeley on Tuesday gives the school until April 2 to turn over a trove of documents, including reports on antisemitic incidents since early 2021; disciplinary action; minutes from meetings of UC leaders; and information on foreign donations.

Last month, protestors at UC Berkeley disrupted an event where a former Israel Defense Forces member was set to speak by banging on and shattering glass to an auditorium, according to videos posted on social media. UC Berkeley said at the time it launched an investigation into the incident.

Hannah Beth Schlacter, an MBA student at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, accused the university last month at a congressional roundtable event of fostering an environment where Jewish students are not given equal opportunity to learn and participate in activities.

“When you do not call out hate against Jews based on shared ancestral identity, that sends the message to other students on campus that it is okay, socially acceptable, tolerated behavior to actively hate Jews on campus,” she said.

CNN’s Elisabeth Buchwald and Samantha Delouya contributed to this report.

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