During a House Education Committee hearing before the Congressional recess, Rep. Alma Adams (D-NC) spoke about attempts to use antisemitism in higher education as an excuse to attack those institutions.
00:00Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to the witnesses for being here today.
00:04Let me start with something that shouldn't need to be said, but it must be said clearly.
00:10Anti-Semitism is real, it's rising, and it has no place on our campuses.
00:15We have a responsibility to make sure that every student, Jewish, Muslim, black, brown, or otherwise,
00:22feels safe and respected where they live and where they learn.
00:26And that means calling out hate when we see it.
00:29It also means upholding the civil rights protections that have long protected our students from discrimination.
00:37Now, I spent over 40 years as a professor, and what I know is this.
00:43Classrooms are where we ask questions, where we challenge each other, and yes, sometimes where we disagree.
00:50But I'm concerned about what I see happening here.
00:53Because instead of solving a problem, we're watching some try to use anti-Semitism as a reason to go after higher education.
01:03I've heard it in this committee that DEI is to blame, that foreign scholars are a threat, that faculty ought to be punished for their views.
01:13But I'll tell you, we don't need political scorecards.
01:17We need real solutions, and that means following the law.
01:22It means fully funding the Office of Civil Rights, not hollowing it out.
01:26And let's not forget, as we sit here today, holding this hearing, the Department of Education is withholding more than $6 billion in congressionally mandated funding from our K-12 schools.
01:41That's money for students, for teachers, after-school programs, and for communities already stretched thin.
01:48So my question, Chancellor Lyons, thank you for being here.
01:52Your institution has a long history with student protests, some of it deeply troubling, and some of it a reflection of the moment that we're in.
02:02But I want to ask you something else.
02:04How does your institution protect academic freedom while also keeping students safe?
02:10And what does it say about your values when those freedoms are tested?
02:18Thank you for the question.
02:21You're describing what is a very complex set of questions.
02:26The freedom to discover, the freedom to learn, the freedom to teach.
02:33These are fundamental freedoms.
02:35And so when we talk about academic freedom, let's just be clear that those are the fundamental freedoms that we protect.
02:43And at the same time, we have this obligation toward free speech.
02:49Does it frustrate us as presidents?
02:52I'll speak for myself.
02:53This is frustrating.
02:54People say, well, just drive down the middle of the road.
02:56This is a very complex road to drive down.
02:59And so we are constantly making judgments around how do we keep people safe and supported,
03:04and also how do we make sure that we are protecting free speech and the marketplace for ideas.
03:10Thank you, sir.
03:11Let me move on.
03:12Chancellor Matos.
03:16Since Chancellor Matos Rodriguez, thank you as well.
03:20CUNY is a large and complex system, 26 campuses across five boroughs.
03:25That's no easy task.
03:26So let me ask you first, have some of the protests we've seen involved people from outside the CUNY community?
03:34Absolutely appreciate the nuance.
03:39Our campuses are the city of New York.
03:43So in many, many cases, some of the events that occur are really occurring in the streets of New York City
03:49that are contingent to our campuses.
03:53So that presents challenges.
03:55So you can give me a yes or no?
03:56Yes.
03:57Okay, thank you.
03:58Second, how is CUNY working across New York's diverse neighborhoods to confront anti-Semitism in a way that includes everyone?
04:08Since I mentioned, I've been committed to this since I became chancellor in 2019.
04:13I had learned as president of Queens College that you needed to bring people together.
04:18We had at Queens College the largest Muslim and Jewish populations of our campuses at CUNY, and I learned the value of bringing people together.
04:29So I have a Jewish advisory committee on Jewish life that I brought together in 2023 to listen to the members of the community to get their feedback and get answers.
04:39Thank you so much.
04:40Let me ask you one, say one final thing.
04:44We've heard concerns from faculty who were recently not reappointed despite having full enrolled classes scheduled for the fall,
04:51and I understand that those matters may be going through a formal process.
04:55I know you may not be able to speak to individual cases, but as a former professor myself and a department chair,
05:02somebody who believes deeply in transparency and fairness, I want to ask you,
05:08would you be willing to follow up with my office and provide more information on the policies and procedures that guide faculty appointments and reappointments at CUNY?
05:18I appreciate the question.
05:20We're here to answer all the questions and cooperate fully with the committee.
