It’s a play in eight acts, starting in December 2023, when then-University of Pennsylvania President Elizabeth Magill was harassed, humiliated and driven out of office after dozens of Penn students staged a multi-day protest of Israel’s military response to Hamas’ attacks on Israeli civilians. Now on May 7, 2025, we have the maltreatment of Haverford President Wendy Raymond. In between, several additional university presidents have been summoned to the dramatized kangaroo court produced by the Republican leadership of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
On May 7, as I watched the three-hour hearing, I kept thinking of revenge fantasy. Did Republican Congressional interrogators remember classroom embarrassments, red scrawls in the margins of papers, reprimands for poor performance? Wow, now they are sitting on the other side of the desk and making these college presidents grovel. President Raymond, by the way, did not grovel. She remained respectful and poised under assault.
Is it tragedy or farce? It’s both.
As The New York Times headline notes, it’s “an old script and new threats.”
On May 7, in addition to Haverford’s Raymond, the presidents of California Polytechnic State University (CalPoly) and Chicago’s DePaul University also testified. But it was President Raymond who got the worst of the attacks. Republican Representatives pressed her to give specific numbers of students who had been expelled or suspended because of participation in last year’s pro-Gaza protests. President Raymond declined to provide statistics. The questioners defended themselves by saying they were not asking for names, just numbers. But at a small college like Haverford, numbers can easily be assigned to names. I was reminded of the 1950s with Senator McCarthy and the House UnAmerican Activities Committee (HUAC) demanding that witnesses provide personal information of others who should be investigated.
It’s ludicrous to assume that everyone speaking out against the Israeli government under Prime Minister Netanyahu is in league with Hamas terrorists.
As a longtime university president, I have always been carefully aware of FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) protecting students’ personally identifiable information. But, hey, Trumpies don’t care much about the rule of law or due process. Student disciplinary hearings are examples of campus due process. Republican questioners were demanding immediate expulsion and wanted a headcount.
After Raymond refused to provide statistics on disciplinary cases against protestors, Representative Elise Stefanik (R, NY) reprised her Tony-nominated role as grand inquisitor by directly threatening the college President: “Many people have sat in this position who are no longer in the positions as presidents of universities for their failure to answer straightforward questions.” Yes, Stefanik really said that. Have we come to the point where angry members of Congress can hire and fire college presidents?
Do NOT attack higher education in the name of antisemitism
As a Jewish former university president, I am deeply disturbed that these Congressional performances are being staged in the name of countering antisemitism. There is no doubt that antisemitism is a heart-rending problem on college campuses, in the nation, and around the world. And it’s gotten worse everywhere. All three interrogated college presidents testified to actions they had taken in the past year to address the issue. All three personally apologized to Jewish students for inadequate protection. Raymond directly addressed her Jewish students, “I am sorry that my actions and my leadership let you down. I am committed to getting this right.”
But none of this was enough for the Republican majority of the committee. They were intent on twisting the knife into what more than 50 Jewish Haverford students, in a letter to the Congressional committee, called “our pain and anguish for your own purposes.” As quoted in The Inquirer, they wrote:
We are all deeply concerned by how you are weaponizing our pain and anguish for your own purposes … It is a blatant assault on our Black, Brown, transgender, queer, non-citizen, and Palestinian peers.
We are concerned that a longtime set of struggles within the Jewish community … are now being adjudicated in a Christian nationalist public sphere, with some of our fellow Jews at Haverford and beyond using Christians who don’t actually care about our community to win punishing victories over other members of our Jewish community.
I have written previously about the Heritage Foundation document, entitled Project Esther, which outlines strategies for undermining colleges and universities with allegations of alliances with Hamas.
We’re back to tragedy and farce. It’s ludicrous to assume that everyone speaking out against the Israeli government under Prime Minister Netanyahu is in league with Hamas terrorists. And yet the Heritage Foundation created a document designed to punish universities based on this conspiracy theory.
The Democrats on the House committee spoke against Republican hypocrisy and called for problem-solving, not theatrical performance. Greg Casar (D, TX) used his time to question Republican members of the committee. He asked, for example, “Do you condemn Trump’s pardoning of the January 6 felon who praised Hitler?” While identifying hatred of Jews as a problem, Casar condemned the Republicans for confusing antisemitism with actions that did not show “mindless support” of the Israeli government.
Representative Bobby Scott (D, VA), the ranking member of the committee, chided the majority for holding hearings rather than enforcing Title VI and its provisions against antisemitism, as well as discrimination against other groups including people with disabilities. He called for focusing on solving the problem rather than just complaining about it. He also emphasized the key point that we must protect student safety but also support open discussion. He denounced the Trump / DOGE closing of seven of the 12 offices of Civil Rights (OCR), impeding investigations of antisemitism and other instances of discrimination.
Representative Suzanne Bonamici (D, OR) condemned “another performative hearing,” rather than trying to solve the problem and “another chapter in the attack on higher education.” She called it “unconscionable to weaponize campus antisemitism, when the safety of Jews throughout history has always depended on the rule of law. As “a Jewish mother,” she could “no longer see this as a good faith effort.” These hearings in her view went against a Jewish core value, tikkun olam the Hebrew phrase meaning “repairing the world,” a call to action for social justice.
Later, Representative Mark Takano (D, CA) chided Republican representatives for “rolling their eyes” when Representative Bonamici talked about repairing the world. He reiterated that the way to handle campus antisemitism is through the due process that used to be provided by Title VI and functioning offices of civil rights.
Education repairs the world
Tikkun olam is a foundational concept of Judaism. Education is an essential tool in fostering necessary repairs. From my first childhood awareness of Judaism, I heard the phrase, “People of the Book.” I would argue that banning books is antisemitic; punishing universities with the withdrawal of funds is antisemitic; undermining scientific research is antisemitic.
I have another personal connection with this story. A long time ago, my first full-time academic job was as Assistant Professor of English at Haverford College. With a newly minted PhD in hand, I was hired ad hoc to substitute for professors on leave. In those days, Haverford enrolled only male students, although active student exchanges existed with neighboring Bryn Mawr. For the two-and-a-half years I taught at Haverford, I was one of only two or three full-time women professors. (Many tales to tell.)
“We are concerned that a longtime set of struggles within the Jewish community … are now being adjudicated in a Christian nationalist public sphere.” — 50 Jewish Haverford College students, in The Inquirer
During that time, I absorbed the Haverford ethos as a secular college with Quaker roots. The commitment to social justice was everywhere. Sometimes it seemed extreme and humorless — but it was nonetheless inspiring. Everyone was called by first names. As someone who had grown up calling adult neighbors “Mr.” and “Mrs,” and “Ms,” I had real trouble calling college president Jack Coleman, “Jack.” And as a female instructor just a few years older than my students, I asked to be called Professor Maimon, not Elaine.
Haverford College is a distinctive, highly selective institution and not the right fit for everyone. But the Philadelphia area is enhanced by having Haverford in its neighborhood. Variety of institutions is one of the great features of American higher education. It’s made us the envy of the world.
The wonderful thing about Haverford then — and I believe now — is the empowerment of multiple voices — students, faculty members, staff, alumni, community members. I recall faculty meetings that would go on for hours, debating intellectual and academic issues. Professors would follow the Quaker tradition by saying, “I rise to support, oppose, whatever ….”
It’s important to recall during the current attack on Haverford’s president that the Quaker tradition has a deep and long history of religious tolerance. Quakers brought that definitive feature to Pennsylvania. That doesn’t mean Haverford always is true to this tradition, but it does indicate they are willing to make repairs.
On May 2, President Wendy Raymond wrote the following to the Haverford community:
At Haverford, we often talk about the importance of learning and deep reflection …. Haverford is a distinctive place. Next week, I’ll have a chance to talk about it … I’ll explain how spirited debate and intellectual curiosity are embedded in our foundation and how our core values — freedom of expression, ethical inquiry, and inclusion and belonging for all members of the Haverford community guide everything we do.
Haverford is an ideal setting for rational, civilized discussion of deeply controversial topics. Tim Walberg (R, Michigan), the Chair of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, in his opening remarks specifically condemned Haverford’s emphasis on dialogue as insufficient. Instead he called for swift punishment for what many might identify as free speech. And yet the best way to understand opposing ideas is through structured conversations with ground rules that require intense listening and respectful response.
It’s important for all of us to support core American values of free expression, while at the same time working toward inclusion and belonging across differences. Students can be safe and free. Together we can repair the world.
What we can do:
- Communicate with Congressional representatives and ask them to stop holding divisive hearings, which foment anti-intellectualism and antisemitism
- Ask Congress to reopen the Offices of Civil Rights (OCR) in Philadelphia and elsewhere.
- Promote student safety and free expression. We can have both.
- Demand restoration of university research funding.
- Support colleges and universities in the work they are doing to reform and improve their efforts to repair the world.
Elaine Maimon, Ph.D., is the author of Leading Academic Change: Vision, Strategy, Transformation. Her long career in higher education has encompassed top executive positions at public universities as well as distinction as a scholar in rhetoric/composition. Her co-authored book, Writing In The Arts and Sciences, has been designated as a landmark text. She is a Distinguished Fellow of the Association for Writing Across the Curriculum.
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