House Committee will subpoena Harvard for documents related to anti-Semitism
A congressional committee said Friday it would issue subpoenas to Harvard University in a search for documentation on whether the university tolerated anti-Semitism on its campus.
The move is part of a growing Republican effort to investigate elite universities for their response to pro-Palestinian student demonstrations, especially after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in Israel. The committee has also launched investigations into Columbia, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania. But Harvard is the first to receive subpoenas.
The war between Israel and Hamas has exposed deep political divisions among Harvard students, faculty and alumni, contributing to the resignation last month of Claudine Gay, the university's first black president.
Harvard, like many other universities, has said it must protect Jewish students while protecting free speech, but critics have said university officials have allowed demonstrations to spiral into anti-Semitism.
The House Committee on Education and the Workforce said the subpoenas would go to Harvard's interim president, Alan Garber; the head of the governance company, Penny Pritzker; and NP Narvekar, the CEO of the management company, which handles the university's endowments.
The subpoenas came as no surprise, as the committee had in recent days reprimanded Harvard for withholding or heavily redacting documents and warned it would take legal action.
“Harvard's continued failure to meet the committee's requests is unacceptable,” Rep. Virginia Foxx said in a statement Friday. “I will not tolerate delays and resistance to our investigation while Harvard's Jewish students continue to weather the firestorm of anti-Semitism that has engulfed the campus.”
Harvard has denied withholding information, saying in a statement Wednesday that it had responded “extensively and in good faith” by providing more than 3,500 pages of documentation.
“Through these submissions, Harvard has clearly demonstrated the steps it has and continues to take to combat acts of anti-Semitism on our campus,” the university said.
In its requests for documents, the committee said there was evidence that anti-Semitism was “pervasive” at Harvard long before the Oct. 7 attack. The subpoena issued to Ms. Pritzker and Dr. Garber asked for “all minutes and/or summaries of Harvard Corporation meetings, both formal and informal, since January 1, 2021,” among a wide range of other documents.
As head of Harvard's enterprise, Ms. Pritzker, a businesswoman and philanthropist, was one of the key supporters of Dr. Gay. The company repeatedly expressed its support for Dr. Gay, even when she accepted her resignation on January 2.
Mr. Narvekar, of Harvard's management company, appears to have been targeted for his role in communicating with major donors during the unrest from Oct. 7 to Jan. 2, when they may have threatened to withdraw over allegations of anti-Semitism.
The subpoenas also request information about disciplinary proceedings “related to conduct involving Jews, Israelis, Israelis, Zionists or Zionism since January 1, 2021.”
The deadline for Harvard to produce the documents is March 4.
It would be the first time that the committee, founded in 1867, has issued a summons to a university, according to a spokesperson for the committee.
The committee said it could refer the findings to the Ministry of Education, which has some oversight powers. And Ms. Foxx has said that universities that tolerate anti-Semitism should not receive federal funding.