'Your Academic Standards Have Been Failing You': Virginia Foxx Grills College Official

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In a House Education Committee hearing held before the Congressional recess, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) asked Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley Dr. Rich Lyons about comments made by his staff.

Transcript

00:00Representative Fox. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and I thank our witnesses for being

00:05here today. And I will ask you when it's appropriate, I'd like a yes or no answer.

00:11Dr. Matos Rodriguez,

00:16Cooney's Faculty and Staff Union, the Professional Staff Congress, or PSC,

00:23has passed multiple resolutions that support the anti-Semitic BDS movement.

00:30Do you support forcing Jewish faculty and staff to be represented by a union that endorses BDS?

00:40Yes or no? Thank you. I have repudiated BDS and have said that there's no place for BDS at the

00:47City University of New York. So you didn't give me an answer, yes or no. So I have to assume it's no.

00:55Yes, excuse me. In 2021, the EEOC substantiated a claim by a Jewish Cooney professor that the PSC

01:06discriminated against him and other Jewish professors because of their religion.

01:11What disciplinary action did you take against those responsible?

01:17I am that case of the EEOC. We thought it was entirely inappropriate to discriminate against any

01:23member of our community. And that was a matter taken by the EEOC.

01:30And so no disciplinary action? You didn't state a disciplinary action?

01:35Not to my knowledge.

01:36Does the PSC have an anti-Semitism problem?

01:42Yes or no?

01:42The PSC does not speak for the City University of New York. We've been clear on our commitment

01:47against anti-Semitism and against BDS. So the president of the PSC personally supports BDS.

01:56Do you view this as problematic?

01:59And the PSC does not speak for the City University of New York. My understanding also that the last

02:05vote that they took- So you obviously don't think it's problematic. Thank you.

02:10Dr. Groves, after the US successfully struck Iran's nuclear infrastructure, one of the professors at

02:20Georgetown Center for Muslim Christian Understanding, Jonathan A.C. Brown said, quote,

02:27I hope Iran does some symbolic strike on the base. Is this person really suited

02:32to be educating the next generation of American diplomats?

02:36Thank you for the question. Within minutes of our learning of that tweet,

02:45the dean contacted Professor Brown. The tweet was removed. We issued a statement condemning the tweet.

02:52Professor Brown is no longer chair of his department and he's on leave and we're beginning

02:59a process of reviewing the case.

03:01So he's been making similarly appalling statements for years, but he has been kept around for years.

03:10So you are now investigating and disciplining him from what you've said?

03:15Yes, Congressman.

03:19Thank you. Dr. Lyons, several UC Berkeley faculty and staff have made anti-Semitic remarks and justified

03:27Palestinian terrorism. In February 2024, history professor and chancellor's chair,

03:34Usama Moknesi, tweeted, I could have been one of those who broke through the siege on October 7th,

03:41referencing an article that praised Hamas terrorists and denied reports of sexual violence against Israeli

03:47women in 2017. Continuing lecturer,

03:51Dr. Hatim Bazian, co-founder of Students for Justice in Palestine, posted anti-Semitic tweets,

03:59including one depicting a stereotypical ultra-Orthodox Jew with the statement,

04:04Mom, look, I is chosen. I can now kill, rape, smuggle organs and steal the lands of Palestinians.

04:12Yeah. An October 2023 survey found 85 percent of Jewish students felt UC Berkeley had not

04:20adequately addressed their safety concerns. Understandable, given the conduct of some

04:26university personnel. Dr. Lyons, do you condone the statements made by these Berkeley employees?

04:34I'm unable to comment on the discipline of an individual faculty or a comment of an individual

04:41faculty. What I can say is that you mentioned several different phrases in different events. So

04:49separate from the people that you're mentioning, if I heard or saw some of those those statements,

04:57I would both view them as objectionable, if not reprehensible, and I would also immediately report it,

05:05and I would also have empathy for our Jewish community.

05:08So what are you doing to make reforms to your hiring practices to see that you don't bring people

05:15like that onto the campus in the future? Let's make the answer brief. The time has expired.

05:20We use, when hiring faculty, we use academic standards to hire faculty. We don't use ideological

05:29conditions to hire faculty. Well, obviously, your academic standards have been failing you,

05:35and I'd look for other standards if I were you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

05:38Ladies, time has expired. I now recognize the gentlemen from California.

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