President Joe Biden's education chief to talk with Dartmouth students about Islamophobia, antisemitism

NEW DELHI: President Joe Biden's education chief planned to meet Wednesday with students at Dartmouth College to discuss antisemitism and Islamophobia on college campuses amid the the Israel-Hamas war. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona will hold a roundtable including Jewish and Muslim students as part of recently launched Dartmouth Dialogues, an initiative that aims spark conversations bridging political and personal divides.

Fallout from the Israel-Hamas war has roiled campuses across the US and reignited a debate over free speech. College leaders have struggled to define the line where political speech crosses into harassment and discrimination, with Jewish and Arab students raising concerns that their schools are doing too little to protect them. The issue took center stage in December when the presidents of Harvard, University of Pennsylvania and MIT testified at a congressional hearing on campus antisemitism.

Asked by Republican lawmakers whether calls for the genocide of Jews would violate campus policies, the presidents offered lawyerly answers and declined to say unequivocally that it was prohibited speech. Their answers prompted weeks of backlash from donors and alumni, ultimately leading to the resignation of Liz Magill at Penn and Claudine Gay at Harvard. Hamas's October 7 attacks killed 1,200 people in Israel, mainly civilians, and abducted around 250 others, nearly half of whom were released during a weeklong cease-fire in November.

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Since the war began, Israel's assault in Gaza has killed more than 23,200 Palestinians, roughly 1 per cent of the territory's population, and more than 58,000 people have been wounded, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. About two-thirds of the dead are women and children. The Education Department has repeatedly warned colleges that they are required to fight antisemitism and Islamophobia on their campuses or risk losing federal money. The agency has opened civil rights inquiries at dozens of schools and colleges in response to complaints of antisemitism and Islamophobia in the wake of the October 7 attacks, including at Harvard, Stanford and MIT.

Cardona met with Jewish students from Baltimore-area colleges in November and vowed to take action to keep them safe. He later met with the leaders of national Muslim, Arab, and Sikh organisations to discuss the rise of Islamophobia on college campuses. The war has also led to the resignation of two administration officials. Last week, Tariq Habash, a Biden administration appointee who worked in the education department to help overhaul the student loan system and address inequities in higher education, stepped down.

He quit to protest the administration's crucial military support of the war and its handling of the conflict's repercussions at home and abroad. In his resignation letter, Habash wrote, “The Department of Education must play an active role in supporting institutions as they respond to the needs of students, faculty, and staff.

This includes protecting all students who choose to exercise their first amendment right to engage in nonviolent actions, including expressing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.” State Department veteran Josh Paul stepped down in October as the administration accelerated arms transfers to Israel. Earlier months of the war saw some administration staffers sign petitions and open letters urging Biden to call for a cease-fire.