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MIT UNDER SCRUTINY

House committee requests documents from MIT for antisemitism probe

Massachusetts Institute of Technology is the fourth school to be drawn into the House Education and Workforce Committee’s investigation

Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

MIT President Sally Kornbluth

The House Committee on Education and the Workforce on Friday requested documents from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the fourth school to be drawn into the committee’s investigation of campus antisemitism.

In a letter to MIT President Sally Kornbluth and MIT Corporation Chair Mark Gorenberg, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), the committee chair, said the committee has “grave concerns regarding the inadequacy of MIT’s response to antisemitism on its campus.”

She referenced testimony by Kornbluth in December that “further called into question the Institute’s willingness to address antisemitism seriously” and raised concerns about the MIT Corporation’s continued endorsement of Kornbluth following that hearing.

Kornbluth is the only one of the three college presidents who testified at that December hearing who remains in her position.

The committee chair highlighted numerous incidents on MIT’s campus since Oct. 7, including disruptions of classes and campus events, blockades of buildings, harassment and assault of Jewish students and chants endorsing violence. She accused MIT of failing to enforce its suspension of a campus pro-Palestinian group that was punished for violating school rules.

Foxx’s letter also includes excerpts from a statement to the committee by MIT Israel Alliance President Talia Khan, who said that MIT’s lack of action “must not be regarded simply as inaction, but rather as a feckless, cowardly, hypocritical, entirely deliberate choice to remain silent.”

The letter requests documents relating to MIT’s responses to antisemitic incidents, disciplinary procedures, internal communications and meeting minutes and foreign donations that the school has received.

The committee previously requested similar documents from Harvard, Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania. Accusing Harvard of non-compliance, it issued a subpoena to the school, and declared this week that the university had still failed to properly cooperate.

It’s unclear yet whether Foxx plans to pursue subpoenas of other school leaders, or how it will respond to Harvard.

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