Manning, Foxx calling for student expulsions, firing faculty, and end to antisemitism on campus

On Monday, the eve of Passover, Rep. Kathy Manning, D, NC-06, was among four members of Congress calling for an end to antisemitism at Columbia University and on college campuses across the country, calling for those students breaking rules to face possible expulsion.

In a letter to Columbia’s administrative leadership, Foxx called for the termination of faculty promoting violent rhetoric.

“Clearly, we have a lot of work to do,” Manning stated at the beginning of her press conference at Columbia. She was joined by Reps. Daniel Goldman, D-NY, Jared Moskowitz, D-FL, and Josh Gottheimer, D-NJ.

Columbia held classes remotely on Monday after a weekend filled with demonstrations and speech targeting Jewish students. 

According to Fox News, there have been several incidents at a pro-Gaza encampment on the South Lawn, including a young woman holding a sign with an arrow pointing to Jewish students stating “Al-Qasam’s Next Targets,” and anti-Israel agitators shouting, “We are Hamas” and “We don’t want no Zionists here.” 

Police told Fox News that Columbia University leadership didn’t want NYPD on campus, but a strong police presence was seen outside Columbia’s gates, where officers appeared to start making arrests on Monday afternoon.

Manning, who co-chairs the House Bipartisan Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, said that last week, the president, Minouche Shafik, and board chairs of Columbia University testified before a committee she sits on and acknowledged the explosion of anti-Semitism at Columbia and committed to enforcing new rules on protesting to keep Jewish students safe.

“Sadly, since that hearing, the protests have become more extreme, more hostile, and more threatening with virulently anti-Semitic chants,” she said. “Jewish students who are trying to study and get to class are targeted and harassed. While free speech and the right to protest are an important part of this university’s history, those rights must be exercised in accordance with the rules the school has established in order to prioritize the safety of students and faculty.”

Manning said students who violate the rules must be held accountable in accordance with those rules, which includes removal, suspension, and expulsion when necessary if the rules are violated. 

Fellow North Carolina Congresswoman Virginia Foxx, NC-05, a Republican, agrees with Manning. She is also calling for the expulsion of students and the termination of faculty at Columbia who are involved in the violent, antisemitic protests on campus.

She sent a letter to Shafik and the co-chairs of the trustees of the university, saying that she was gravely concerned by the ongoing chaos at Columbia University caused by the radical, unlawful Gaza Solidarity Encampment. 

Foxx also noted that Columbia’s “continued failure to restore order and safety promptly to campus constitutes a major breach of the University’s Title VI obligations, upon which federal financial assistance is contingent and which must immediately be rectified.”

Manning said that outside agitators who sneak onto campus must also be removed and prevented from returning or harassing students outside the campus who are trying to get into campus.

She said she has personally talked with Jewish students who feel threatened, isolated, and discriminated against and have even been told to go home for their own safety, which is unacceptable and cannot be the answer.

“Coumbia must do more to keep Jewish students safe and to reestablish an atmosphere in which all students can learn, study, and participate safely in campus life,” Manning stated. “Columbia must also move forward with its promised efforts to teach its students and its faculty about the nature and history, and dangers of antisemitism. It must ensure that Columbia professors are not encouraging and spreading antisemitism.”

Manning said she is deeply disturbed by the hostile and threatening protests being implemented on college campuses across the country and is calling on the US Department of Education and the US Department of Justice to work with the White House to ensure that all universities take steps necessary to keep Jewish students and faculty safe.

“I also call on Congress to enact legislation to implement the steps outlined in the US National Strategy To Counter Antisemitism to address the scourge of antisemitism, which is a threat to the foundations of our democracy,” Manning added. “I have just recently filed a bill to do just that. “My colleagues all signed on it, and I urge the Speaker of the House to bring this bill to the floor for a vote.” 

The post Manning, Foxx calling for student expulsions, firing faculty, and end to antisemitism on campus first appeared on Carolina Journal.