At the very least, the report provides insight into where the Republican-led House has identified deficiencies in current college and university policies.

On December 18, 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives Staff Report on Antisemitism was released with recommendations of the House to address rising antisemitism in universities and institutions of higher education. The report includes recommendations for institutions, Congress and the executive branch to take in promoting a safe learning environment for all members of the higher education community. Higher education leaders may want to review the recommendations made in the report, as they likely foreshadow policy direction in the 119th Congress and second Trump administration. At the very least, the report provides insight into where the Republican-led House has identified deficiencies in current college and university policies.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., commissioned the report in April 2024, as a result of a number of protests at U.S. college campuses. The protests were largely a response to the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack against Israel and its retaliatory military operations in Gaza. The report was a joint effort led by the House Education Committee on Education and the Workforce, along with the Committees on Energy and Commerce, Judiciary, Oversight and Accountability, Veterans Affairs, and Ways and Means. The findings of the report reiterate the points raised in the “Holding Campus Leaders Accountable and Confronting Antisemitism” House Education and Workforce Committee hearing, which heavily criticized the leaders of Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for their collective failure to respond to rising antisemitism on college campuses.

The report provides a number of recommendations to institutions, Congress and the executive branch. Many such recommendations indicate a clear expectation by congressional Republicans that institutions of higher education make improvements and, in some cases, reform current policies. Colleges and universities should proactively work with counsel to evaluate the recommendations, determine whether to take any actions at this time, and to generally prepare to defend policies and actions as necessary.

Report Recommendations to Universities and Institutions of Higher Education

1. Universities must enforce conduct rules and impose meaningful discipline.
2. Universities must protect student safety to maintain a safe and uninterrupted learning environment.
3. Universities should forcefully reject antisemitism.
4. Universities must recognize that discrimination against “Zionists” is an antisemitic civil rights violation.
5. Universities must increase academic rigor and viewpoint diversity.
6. Universities must increase public transparency into the process of handling discrimination incidents.

Report Recommendations to the Executive Branch

1. The executive branch should aggressively enforce Title VI (which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin) and hold universities accountable for violating its provisions.
2. The executive branch should strictly enforce the Clery Act (which establishes reporting requirements related to crime statistics and safety policies for institutions of higher education) and issue fines to noncompliant universities.

Report Recommendations to Congress

1. Congress should pass legislation that removes Title IV eligibility (related to federal student aid programs) from any institution that boycotts or divests from Israel.
2. Congress should pass the Defending Education Transparency and Ending Rogue Regimes Engaging in Nefarious Transactions Act (H.R. 5933) (the Act increases oversight and disclosure requirements related to foreign sources and institutions of higher education).
3. Congress should pass the College Cost Reduction Act (H.R. 6951) (which included provisions related to holding institutions accountable for underperforming outcome metrics, instead of adherence to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives).

Report Recommendations to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), HHS Office of Civil Rights (OCR) and National Institutes of Health (NIH)

1. The administration should make personnel changes to HHS OCR, as the current staff has failed to respond to congressional inquiries and hold taxpayer funded grantee institutions responsible for conduct.
2. NIH should send communications to the public reiterating that individuals may report incidents or allegations of antisemitism and other harassment and discrimination for shared ancestry through their grantee harassment web portal and email address.
3. NIH should update grant terms for prospective grantees to include public reporting requirements of compliance reviews, reporting requirements to the agency for any alleged conduct by key grant personnel and other measures to strengthen investigations of discrimination.

Report Recommendations to NIH Grantees

1. Establish a task force for NIH funded institutions to review curricula for “bias, discrimination, indoctrination, etc., to ensure that students are not being subjected to politicized or biased educations.”
2. Establish an antisemitism task force for NIH funded institutions to provide assistance to institutions in responding to antisemitic incidents.
3. Implement discrimination and harassment training requirements for NIH funded institutions.

Report Recommendations to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

1. The VA should establish anti-harassment policies and guidelines for institutions participating in VA education programs.
2. The VA should adopt policies to include complaints of antisemitism in compliance surveys and consider previous allegations of antisemitism in approving institutions to participate in VA education programs.
3. Provide a definition for “antisemitism” in existing VA anti-harassment policies.

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