At Wednesday’s House Education Committee hearing, Del. Gregorio Sablan (D-MP) questioned Columbia University President Dr. Nemat “Minouche” Shafik and other witnesses about antisemitic and hateful speech on campus.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Mr. Sablon, you're recognized for five minutes.
00:03 Thank you, Madam Chair.
00:05 Welcome to the witnesses and to everybody in this room.
00:09 I have a question.
00:12 Well, anti-Semitism exists.
00:16 We know it's a problem.
00:18 It's a major problem.
00:20 Islamophobia exists.
00:22 It's a major problem.
00:25 You know, all kinds of different --
00:27 But you at Columbia, you know it exists, right?
00:31 Any one of you.
00:33 Anti-Semitism is a problem at your school.
00:36 Yes.
00:37 Yes.
00:38 It's a problem in many other schools and in many other places in the nation and in the world.
00:44 Yes.
00:45 At Columbia, you are all working to try as much as possible to fix this problem.
00:54 Right?
00:56 That's what I gather from all of you today.
00:59 Am I correct?
01:01 Yes.
01:02 Yes.
01:03 Yes.
01:04 Thank you.
01:05 Now, I've been here 16 years.
01:08 I'm not that long.
01:10 But there's a trick here in hearings where I ask you a question, and before you give me an answer, I throw in another question.
01:16 So, Dr. Shafik, is there some things you would like to say when you were so unceremoniously cut off from giving an answer to questions you were asked by United States members of Congress?
01:31 Please.
01:34 I guess what I'd say is I am personally very committed to viewpoint diversity at Columbia,
01:42 and I'm very personally committed to making sure that our faculty do not cross the line in terms of discrimination and harassment.
01:50 We have mechanisms that are now being enforced, and on my watch, they will be enforced.
01:58 I think many of these appointments were made in the past in a different era, and that era is done.
02:09 All right.
02:10 Dr. Professor Shafik, do you have anything to add, sir, to what you have been asked already?
02:17 At the moment, no.
02:18 No?
02:19 Nobody cut you off?
02:20 Great.
02:22 Ms. Shipman, I know somebody cut you off.
02:24 Do you have something to add?
02:27 These are all legitimate questions.
02:29 I understand the urgency, and I appreciate that we're here.
02:33 Okay.
02:34 You don't?
02:35 Mr. Greenwald, sir?
02:36 Nothing else.
02:37 All right.
02:38 Thank you.
02:39 Thank you for being here, expecting all of these things, but I can see that you are all aware of the issue.
02:48 You're working towards the issue.
02:50 I don't know if what you guys figure out to do as your policy in Columbia University will be a policy we can copy and fix all the problems we have in the world.
03:04 This is an ancient problem, like Ms. Shipman said.
03:09 It will take time and effort to fix it.
03:13 Just as we still have to fix women's rights, human rights, you know, employee, everything, so many things.
03:21 But at Columbia, I am confident, I am convinced that you guys know the problem exists and that you are trying to do something to fix it.
03:31 And for that, I yield the remainder of my time.
03:33 Thank you.