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Antisemitism
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HARVARD PRESIDENT BOTCHED HER TESTIMONY ON ANTISEMITISM. FIRING HER WOULD'VE
MADE IT WORSE.


INSTEAD OF CLEARLY STANDING AGAINST THE THREATS AND INTIMIDATION THAT JEWISH
STUDENTS HAVE FACED, THE PRESIDENTS OF HARVARD, PENN AND MIT GAVE LEGALISTIC
ANSWERS DEVOID OF EMPATHY ABOUT 'CONTEXT.'

Ingrid Jacques
USA TODAY


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It is the question and answer heard 'round the world.

"Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Penn's rules or code of conduct?"
Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., asked University of Pennsylvania President Liz
Magill.

"It is a context-dependent decision," Magill said. "If the speech becomes
conduct, it can be harassment."

That exchange took place at a congressional hearing last week, at which three
elite university presidents faced grilling for the antisemitism flourishing on
their campuses in the wake of Hamas’ attack on Israel in October.

Instead of clearly standing against the threats and intimidation that Jewish
students have faced, the presidents gave legalistic answers devoid of empathy
about “context” – two of them even smirked while responding.



Their performance caused widespread outrage from their campuses, donors, the
public and Democrats and Republicans alike. 

And reaction has been swift. Magill resigned over the weekend, under intense
pressure. She had tried to do damage control, but it didn’t help.

Claudine Gay of Harvard and Sally Kornbluth of the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology also have been strongly criticized for their responses at the
hearing. Gay, at least, will keep her job for now.



Comedy and cancel culture:Hope for free speech? Kat Timpf riffs on the power of
comedy and dangers of cancel culture.


NO ONE BELIEVES THAT THESE UNIVERSITIES UPHOLD FREE SPEECH

The reason these university leaders have received so much outrage goes far
beyond this one mishap before Congress. Instances of antisemitism and clear
bullying of Jewish students on their campuses and others are prevalent, and
their handling of these situations has proved lackluster at best. 



Harvard for Hamas?Something is very twisted on America's university campuses

This all points to deep hypocrisy – and deeper problems – within our leading
institutions of higher learning. The university presidents’ sudden discovery of
free speech rings hollow. Harvard ranks "dead last" out of 248 schools in the
Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s (FIRE) survey of college free
speech rankings. Penn is second worst. 



Students at Harvard undergo training that "fatphobia" and "cisheterosexism" are
violence. Using someone’s wrong pronouns is abuse. Any words lowering a person’s
self-worth are abusive. Speakers are disinvited for having the “wrong” opinions
on gender issues or other topics. Conservative students are denied admission for
"offensive" social media posts made years before.



But scream "intifada" or act in a threatening manner toward Jewish students?
Totally fine.


MORE SPEECH IS THE ANSWER. NOT LESS. 

I spoke with FIRE President and CEO Greg Lukianoff this week about what’s going
on at our colleges – and about his new book, with co-author Rikki Schlott, “The
Canceling of the American Mind,” which delves into how things got this bad in
higher education and how to fix it. 



“If the presidents of Harvard and Penn had run institutions that were
consistently excellent on freedom of speech, then I'd be the first person in
line defending even their ham-fisted answers during these hearings, saying that
even though they didn't say it very well, they were correct,” Lukianoff said.
“But they sort of reaped what they sowed last week because they are terrible.
They show a huge double standard when it comes to freedom of speech.”

Washington Post failed:Cartoon falls to cancel culture: In perilous times, free
speech attacks are no laughing matter

Lukianoff is a liberal, by the way. But he’s one of those classic “old school”
liberals (like Bill Maher of “Real Time") who still believe that illiberalism is
bad. They find it humorous that they now get confused for being conservative,
when they haven't changed at all.

FIRE defends free speech rights for everyone, regardless of where they may be on
the political spectrum.



While it’s positive that people are waking up to what’s going on at
universities, the answer is not for these institutions to clamp down on more
speech, as Magill alarmingly said would be her approach (before she was forced
out). 



Complex speech codes and harassment policies, which are in place at most
colleges, are harmful to upholding the culture of free expression, and by their
nature place certain groups of students above others. 

It would be best to do away with those altogether in lieu of policies that
uphold free speech and debate for all students, while enforcing disciplinary
action fairly against students who violate them. 


OUSTING OTHER COLLEGE PRESIDENTS WON'T SOLVE PROBLEM

Stefanik and some big Republican donors have pushed for the ouster of Harvard’s
Gay and MIT’s Kornbluth.



Yet, it strikes me as ironic that some on the right are harnessing what feels
like cancel culture to "take down" people they don’t like. The left has long
used the phenomenon to silence people who offend them by trying to get them
fired or ruining their reputations. 

In their book, Lukianoff and Schlott detail the dangers of cancelation and how
it shuts down real debate.



Disappointing silence:Hamas terrorists raped and mutilated Israeli women and
girls. Where are #MeToo warriors?

Let’s face it. Ousting these leaders might feel good – and may even be deserved
– but it won’t solve the underlying shortfalls on campus. 

“There's an argument that if (Gay had not been) given a chance and she (had
been) required to step down, that could send a message to universities across
the country that the problem is that they're not policing protected speech
enough,” Lukianoff told me.

“Now of course, should they be policing unprotected speech like threats and
intimidation? Of course they should. But if the message is sent that this
actually means that these prestigious institutions lost their presidents because
they hadn't clamped down on speech enough, that would be indeed very bad.”

Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at USA TODAY. Contact her
at ijacques@usatoday.com or on X, formerly Twitter: @Ingrid_Jacques








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