Representative Elise Stefanik (R-NY) absolutely embarrassed the university presidents who came to Congress last week, and the end results speak for themselves.

As a reminder, and for posterity, this is the exchange that cost Liz Magill of the University of Pennsylvania her job, and may yet still cost Claudine Gay of Harvard and Sally Kornbluth of MIT their positions.

Rep. Elise Stefanik repeatedly asked the presidents of MIT, Harvard and Penn if calling for the genocide of Jews violated the schools' code of conduct in a contentious congressional hearing.

The leaders are now facing criticism for their responses. https://t.co/OKIwz5RjTP pic.twitter.com/N9T2CbOcsI

— The New York Times (@nytimes) December 7, 2023

Yesterday, both Magill and the chair of the Board of Trustees at UPenn, Scott Bok, resigned – most likely because Magill was going to be fired at the emergency Board of Trustees meeting. Claudine Gay’s record is under deep scrutiny at the moment, as an old memo from 2020 (when Gay was still Edgerley Family Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and on the shortlist of candidates to become Harvard’s president) has emerged that shows her absolute commitment to DEI and using the riots of 2020 as a springboard to fully implement her plans.

An excerpt from the beginning of the memo reads:

Dear members of the FAS community,

As we look ahead to the start of a fall semester unlike any other, we confront the realization that we are now living history in the making. This moment has been shaped by crises old and new, as one pandemic has collided with another. The COVID-19 pandemic is a truly singular event; a public health threat that has spared no part of our academic enterprise from disruption, forcing us to reimagine everything from undergraduate residential life to the daily activities of our labs and libraries. Meanwhile, a second pandemic is unfolding, one with deeper roots in American life. People across the world have risen up in protest against police brutality and systemic racism, awake to the devastating legacies of slavery and white supremacy like never before. The calls for racial justice heard on our streets also echo on our campus, as we reckon with our individual and institutional shortcomings and with our Faculty’s shared responsibility to bring truth to bear on the pernicious effects of structural inequality. Even as our opportunities to be together on campus are limited, now is the time to reengage and reconnect, both with each other and with the promise of our mission to advance knowledge and discovery in service of a more just world.

*This moment offers a profound opportunity for institutional change that should not and cannot be squandered.* (emphasis in the original text) The national conversation around racial equity continues to gain momentum and the unprecedented scale of mobilization and demand for justice gives me hope. In raw, candid conversations and virtual gatherings convened across the FAS in the aftermath of George Floyd’s brutal murder, members of our community spoke forcefully and with searing clarity about the institution we aspire to be and the lengths we still must travel to be the Harvard of our ideals. It is up to us to ensure that the pain expressed, problems identified, and solutions suggested set us on a path for long-term change. *I write today to share my personal commitment to this transformational project and the first steps the FAS will take to advance this important agenda in the coming year.* (emphasis in the original text)

Apparently, Claudine Gay became Harvard president not for her academic excellence (which is also apparently in question now), but because of her single-minded committment to DEI, and her grandiose plans to make sure Harvard was shaped in this mold. As she puts it at the end of her memo:

These initiatives are just a starting place. Our engagement in anti-racist action and the infusion of inclusive practices into all aspects of our teaching and research mission reflect a new sense of institutional responsibility and will require sustained effort over time. Just like the learning that takes place in our classrooms and labs, this work demands thoughtful attention, experimentation (not all of which will be successful), and patience and humility for when we get it wrong. No one person or institution (not even Harvard!) has all the answers, and we cannot achieve our goals without the courage to listen deeply and generously and to act with urgency, seriousness of purpose, and a mind towards continual growth. The work of racial justice is not a one-time project. We must be relentless, constructively critical, and action-oriented in our pursuit to build the thriving, more equitable FAS we all deserve.

Even as I say that, I am clear-eyed that the work of real change will be difficult and for many it will be uncomfortable. Change is messy work. Institutional inertia will threaten to overwhelm even our best efforts. If we are to succeed, we must challenge a status quo that is comfortable and convenient for many. But I believe progress can be made and will be beneficial to all members of our community.

Collectively, we are the authors of Harvard’s future. As we begin this historic year, I offer you my personal commitment to be a partner and ally in the work for equity and justice. And I urge you all to lean into the profound optimism that animates our mission and join your colleagues in building what will ultimately be a proud chapter in the long story of Harvard.

But as we now know, the Supreme Court recently slapped down Harvard’s entire admissions system that someone like Claudine Gay obviously believed in, and we know that her belief in “equity and justice” does not extend to Jewish students, as the Department of Education now has an open investigation into anti-Semitism at Harvard. And after the blowback from her statements to Stefanik during the hearing, Gay is busy backtracking.

At issue was a line of questioning that asked whether calling for the genocide of Jews would violate the universities’ code of conduct. At the Tuesday hearing, Gay said it depended on the context, adding that when “speech crosses into conduct, that violates our policies.”

Gay told The Crimson she was sorry, saying she “got caught up in what had become at that point, an extended, combative exchange about policies and procedures.”

“What I should have had the presence of mind to do in that moment was return to my guiding truth, which is that calls for violence against our Jewish community — threats to our Jewish students — have no place at Harvard, and will never go unchallenged,” Gay said.

Even though MIT is apparently backing Kornbluth right now (what is UP with MIT, I ask you?), Magill’s resignation and Gay’s forced apology clearly shows that Stefanik absolutely exposed these university presidents as vapid pseudo-intellectuals who couldn’t be counted on to differentiate between right and wrong because it didn’t fit into their intersectional Venn diagrams. Stefanik was on the right side here, and everyone knows it, including her.

One down.
Two to go.

This is only the very beginning of addressing the pervasive rot of antisemitism that has destroyed the most “prestigious” higher education institutions in America.

This forced resignation of the President of @Penn is the bare minimum of what is required.…

— Rep. Elise Stefanik (@RepStefanik) December 9, 2023

Enter Saturday Night Live. They know that Stefanik exposed the hypocrisy of these three university presidents. They just cannot cope with that – at least, not without seething over it and mocking Stefanik – yes, really!

Yes, all three university presidents come off badly, but the entire point of the sketch was to mock Stefanik. The sketch also commits the cardinal sin for a supposed comedy show – it isn’t funny. The subject matter isn’t funny, the setting isn’t funny, and the person who is supposed to be the center of the sketch – Stefanik – isn’t funny. Chalk this one up to SNL trying to pull off their own version of “Republicans POUNCE!” and failing badly.

Elise Stefanik absolutely should get credit for pulling the masks off these university professors and exposing their lip service to free speech that they never apply to both sides. We need more of this, if the colleges and universities are ever going to be saved. And if they cannot, then moments like this make sure that the decline of those same academic institutions speeds up.

Featured image: Representative Elise Stefanik (R-NY), official Congressional portrait, cropped, public domain