A group of 505 law professors and faculty members have signed a letter, condemning the US House Committee’s investigation into Rutgers University Newark Center for Security, Race, and Rights (CSRR) for alleged antisemitism. The signatories believe that the probe threatens core American commitments to free speech and academic freedom.
The congressional probe into Rutgers University began on March 27 by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, under the chairmanship of North Carolina Representative Virginia Foxx. The signatories in their letter stated that the investigation into Rutgers CSRR is a politically motivated and viewpoint-based attack on the Center and a tenured university professor.
The CSRR is the only US law school-based center engaged in researching how the law impacts South Asians, Muslims, and Arabs, aiming to educate and advocate on civil and human rights matters. The center hosts various lectures throughout the year and has noted that of the nearly 90 lectures it has hosted since its inception, the Committee has only labelled those containing a speaker of Palestinian ancestry or expressing pro-Palestinian views as ‘antisemitic’.
In response to the Israel-Hamas war in the previous year, Foxx has initiated several investigations into universities across the country. Foxx asserted in a letter, “Rutgers stands out for the intensity and pervasiveness of antisemitism on its campuses. Rutgers senior administrators, faculty, staff, academic departments, and centers, and student organizations have contributed to the development of a pervasive climate of antisemitism.”
The signatories have consistently called for the committee to cease its investigation and have urged Congress to condemn the Committee’s actions. They argue that the Committee’s conduct not only threatens a fundamental constitutional value of American liberty but also compromises a distinct pillar of our democratic republic, that is, academic freedom.
Serving as a backdrop to this case are similar investigations into other universities following high-profile antisemitism allegations, including Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania. Some of these probes have led to the resignation of two university presidents.