It’s UCLA’s Turn in the Hot Seat: Chancellor to Appear before Congress Thursday AM

The past couple of months have been a rather trying time for UCLA Chancellor Gene Block.

And it won’t get any better Thursday.

Block has been called to testify by the House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce about antisemitism on campus.

The chair of the committee, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), has already set a challenging tone for the hearing, saying “The Committee has a clear message for mealy-mouthed, spineless college leaders: Congress will not tolerate your dereliction of your duty to your Jewish students.”

Block will appear alongside Michael Schill, president of Northwestern University, and Rutgers president Jonathan Holloway starting at about 6:45 a.m., California time – if you’re up and looking to start your day by ruining it, you can watch the hearing here.

The hearing is part of an on-going series that Foxx and the committee began in the wake of the pro-Hamas uproar seen on campuses since the October 7 attack on Israel.  

In fact, it was the infamous first hearing – involving the presidents of MIT, Harvard, and Penn – in December that shook the national educational establishment.  After disastrous, equivocating, almost snide performances, both Harvard president Claudine Gay and Penn leader Liz Magill lost their jobs.

Since then the committee has expanded its probe into educational antisemitism at all levels, including questioning local school district leaders such as Berkeley’s district superintendent Enikia Ford Morthel who was grilled on numerous instances of overt antisemitism occurring at her schools and originating from both students and faculty.  

The allegations of both antisemitic incidents and the administration’s failure to handle them properly has already prompted the civil rights division of the Department of Education to begin its own investigation.

Not to be left out, UC Berkeley is also currently under congressional investigation for multiple incidents of brazen antisemitism on its campus recently.

For Block the questioning is expected to be extremely pointed, at least on the Republican side of the aisle.  UCLA has had a particularly chaotic – and comparatively violent –  atmosphere during its couple of months of protests.  

Jewish students were being barred from entering classrooms and libraries by pro-Hamas protestors and aggressively antisemitic chants and statements originated from the campus encampment until it was finally cleared out days after counter-protestors attempted to storm the protest.

Dozens have been arrested, graduations cancelled, classes pushed on-line, and confusion reigned over exactly what needed to be done throughout the partial campus takeover. 

University law enforcement has been criticized, though they responded by claiming their hands were tied by Block’s dithering administration. Students and faculty have expressed their outrage on both sides of the issue, with Israel supports saying the school didn’t do nearly enough to keep them safe and end the protests, while the pro-Palestinian activists said the school failed to protect them and their rights.

Since the end of the encampment, the school announced it is cooperating with local law enforcement to identify, find, and charge the counter-protesters, but not the protestors.  Inexplicably, or, come to think of it, maybe not that inexplicably, even CNN has gotten in on that particular effort.  

Block himself faced a number of calls for his resignation, though the steam has seemed to run out on that movement.

Nonetheless, he still has to explain himself to Congress and Foxx, who has already committed to conducting continuing and active investigations.

“No stone must go unturned while buildings are being defaced, campus greens are being captured, or graduations are being ruined,” Foxx said. “College is not a park for playacting juveniles or a battleground for radical activists. Everyone affiliated with these universities will receive a healthy dose of reality: actions have consequences.”