Harvard University says it has handed over nearly 4,900 documents as part of the federal investigation into antisemitism on its campus.
The Boston Globe reports there have been 11 different submissions since January, the latest coming after the chair of the Republican-led House Education & Workforce Committee subpoenaed the school last month for failing to comply with the investigation in good faith.
“I am extremely disappointed in the path that Harvard has chosen to take in the Committee’s investigation,” the committee chairwoman, Rep. Virginia Foxx, a Republican from North Carolina, said in a statement. She acknowledged that Harvard has produced thousands of pages of documents, but complained that more than 40% were already public. “Quality — not quantity — is the Committee’s concern.”
Harvard said Tuesday that it has responded "in good faith" to the inquiry. The school had previously said that the supboenas were unwarranted.
“With an additional submission today, Harvard has provided nearly 4,900 pages of information in 11 submissions since January, including non-public information and internal communications, along with public information, the Committee requested Harvard to compile,” Harvard spokesperson Jason Newton said in a statement.
Foxx issued a new statement Tuesday calling Harvard's refusal to comply with the investigation "shameful." She said many of the pages submitted were duplicates or documents that were submitted previously or were so heavily redacted as to render them useless.
The Ivy League school continues to navigate the campus response to the Israel-Hamas war and comes after the resignation in January of its president Claudine Gay, who faced a backlash over her congressional testimony on antisemitism as well as plagiarism accusations.
It has since announced separate task forces to combat antisemitism and Islamophobia and worked to provide documents to the congressional committee investigating antisemitism.
The Oct. 7 Hamas attacks killed 1,200 people in Israel, mainly civilians, and abducted around 250 others. Roughly 130 hostages have yet to be recovered. Israel’s military response has killed more than 29,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, and has laid waste to most of the densely populated Gaza Strip.
The war’s fallout has roiled U.S. campuses and reignited a debate over free speech. College leaders have struggled to define where political speech crosses into harassment and discrimination, with both Jewish and Arab students calling on schools to do more to protect them.
