Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), the top Republican on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, issued a new call for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to hold a hearing addressing antisemitism on college campuses, following the resignation on Wednesday of Columbia University President Minouche Shafik.

Cassidy said in a statement provided exclusively to Jewish Insider that Sanders, who chairs the committee, “has refused to hold a hearing to address the antisemitism against Jewish students.” The Republican senator has been urging Sanders to hold a hearing on the matter since late last year. “In the last ten months since October 7, we’ve seen antisemitic demonstrations take over college campuses,” the statement reads. 

“The Columbia president clearly mishandled the protests and the threats to Jewish students. The outrage over antisemitism in higher education is not going away. Jewish students coming back to campus this fall need assurance that their schools and the Department of Education will protect them from attacks and discrimination,” Cassidy said of Shafik, arguing that the problem of campus antisemitism goes beyond her tenure as president of Columbia.

“I urge HELP Democrats to reconsider their opposition to holding a hearing to ensure schools and the Biden-Harris administration uphold their legal responsibility to maintain a safe learning environment for all students,” he continued. “The time for accountability is now.” 

Cassidy told JI in November that Sanders had declined to call a hearing on campus antisemitism, so he instead organized a bipartisan roundtable on the issue, which the HELP chairman did not attend. 

Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), who has been pushing for a HELP hearing alongside Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), told JI in May that Sanders told him that he planned to hold a hearing on antisemitism and Islamophobia, but such a hearing hasn’t materialized. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) accused Republicans during the November roundtable of ignoring the difficulties being faced by Muslim and Arab students.

“I’m hearing about the 400% increase in antisemitism since Oct. 7 on my [state’s] campuses,” Kaine said at the time. “But I’m also hearing from students who are Arab American or Muslim American or Palestinian American or who express any support for Palestinians — that they’re being targeted too… They’re afraid for their safety, they’re afraid for their livelihood and we’re not including them in this discussion.”

Sanders hasn’t responded to questions about his plans on the subject, and the three senators told JI that they have not received any updates on announcing or scheduling a hearing. 

Asked by JI in May about organizing such a hearing, Sanders replied that, “The issue of bigotry on campus is something that we are concerned about” before abruptly entering a senators-only elevator.