Elise Stefanik Probes The 'Crisis' Of Ideological Diversity At Harvard University With Linda McMahon

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At a House Education Committee hearing, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) questioned Education Secretary Linda McMahon.

Transcript

00:00Thank you. I recognize the gentlelady from New York, Ms. Stefanik.

00:04Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Secretary McMahon, thank you for being here today.

00:08I want to follow up on my colleague across the aisles, back and forth,

00:12where you didn't have an opportunity to answer the question. As you know, I've been very engaged

00:16in leading this effort in terms of holding Harvard accountable.

00:20We saw the scourge of anti-Semitism

00:24after the Hamas attacks on October 7th, and Harvard failed

00:28in every respect to enforce the rules to protect Jewish students.

00:32And over the course of our investigation, it was revealed

00:36that there was anti-Semitism deep in the office of DEI

00:40at Harvard for their failure to respond to Jewish students, and it highlighted

00:44this issue of a failure of ideological diversity. I wanted to add

00:48some more details to what you pointed out. Less than 3% of the Harvard faculty

00:52are conservative, and this is a challenge in education

00:56writ large. According to the Harvard Crimson, as of 1989

01:00the ratio was 2 to 1,

01:02liberal to conservative.

01:04By 2017, it was 5 to 1,

01:06and then as of

01:082023, it's 26

01:10to 1. So when we talk

01:12about ideological diversity, it is

01:14a crisis at Harvard. Can you further elaborate

01:16on that? Well, just agreeing

01:18with what you said. I mean,

01:20when, by their own statistics,

01:22it is clear that they don't have

01:24diversity of viewpoint. And I

01:26believe, and as I mentioned a little bit earlier,

01:28the fact that Harvard had already

01:30replaced its head, or

01:32looking to replace

01:34its head of

01:36Middle East Studies, recognizing

01:38that they already had an issue,

01:40I think it's

01:42indicative that Harvard, even

01:44before we were

01:46initiating our talk,

01:48well, I actually think that we spurred

01:50them on. Absolutely. When we

01:52started putting teeth in what we were doing,

01:54they finally said, okay, we're going to make

01:56some changes, and they did do that

01:58shortly after we started our investigation.

02:00And you're spot on, Secretary

02:02McMahon. Harvard has failed to

02:04save itself. They are responding

02:06to the exceptional work of this committee,

02:08and the accountability measures that this

02:10administration has put into place.

02:12I want to thank you for your strong leadership.

02:14I want to thank President Trump for his

02:16strong leadership. I care deeply about

02:18this as an alumna of Harvard,

02:20and as the first member of my immediate family to

02:22have that opportunity. We want to make sure

02:24these institutions are excellent for generations

02:26to come. My follow-up,

02:28which is on a different subject,

02:30this has come up in virtually every

02:32meeting that I've had, whether it's with

02:34university presidents, professors, or

02:36students, is the challenge

02:38of AI,

02:40and academic integrity in the

02:42classroom. Can you talk about the

02:44department's approach in terms of how to

02:46harness the benefits of this technology,

02:48but also make sure that we are

02:50learning the basics in the classroom,

02:52and have academic integrity?

02:54You know, I think AI

02:56is probably one of the...

03:00It's so overwhelming

03:02with the abilities that it can bring, but it

03:04also has a downside and dangers.

03:06We want to make sure that AI is not,

03:08you know, leading to

03:10false

03:12essays or papers or studies

03:14that students are turning in.

03:16However, when I've looked at K-12 education

03:18and I've seen some of the tutorial

03:20benefits for individual studies

03:22through AI, I think it brings

03:24so much to the table that we can

03:26offer students who are

03:28accomplishing more in the classroom

03:30or who aren't accomplishing

03:32as much by that one-on-one

03:34tutorial advantage. So I think we

03:36need to harness and capture those

03:38opportunities from AI, but at the same

03:40time, making sure we understand,

03:42and I don't think we

03:44even have this much

03:46of a handle on it yet, of what

03:48some of the dangers of AI

03:50can be. And I think that that's what's

03:52incumbent upon us to look across the board

03:54at all of that. Well, thank you for that.

03:56And my last question, and this is

03:58primarily for K-12,

04:00and I think about this both as a policy

04:02here, but as a mom, as my young

04:04three-year-old who is finishing pre-K

04:06three, but screen time

04:08for our kids and the dangers

04:10of huge amounts of screen

04:12time. I want to credit my colleague, Kevin

04:14Kiley, who's host a hearing on this

04:16next week. Can you discuss the

04:18administration and the department's

04:20approach to tackling this very

04:22concerning issue that has had huge

04:24impacts on the mental health, but also

04:26the focus of our kids? Well,

04:28I do think this is really

04:30at state level. Yes.

04:32And there are governors who are

04:34you know, promoting policies or

04:36superintendents who are put in policies

04:38in their local areas that say, you know,

04:40bell to bell, in schools

04:42no devices.

04:44So that students aren't distracted, you know, from

04:46what they're doing. I think parents at home need

04:48to look at the amount of screen time that they're

04:50their children. This is a great

04:52deal of parental responsibility as well.

04:54And we, you know,

04:56we've looked at different aspects.

04:58I've seen reports of

05:00more and more screen time, which then

05:02reduces your ability to

05:04focus and have attention for your subject.

05:06So while there is an entertainment value,

05:08an information value to screen time,

05:10it's not always

05:12I think less could be more.

05:14Thank you so much, Secretary McMahan

05:16for your service, for the tremendous work you're doing

05:18for students across the country. Yield back.

05:20Thank you. I thank the

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