Campus Reform: House committee demands Bowdoin College comply with records request on anti-Semitism investigation

The House Committee on Education and the Workforce recently sent a letter to Bowdoin College in Maine, requesting that the school comply with a federal order to hand over records relating to an anti-Israel encampment on campus.

The letter was authored by Committee Chairman Tim Walberg (R-MI) and Higher Education and Workforce Development Subcommittee Chairman Burgess Owens (R-UT), and was sent to the Bowdoin administration on June 2.

Walberg and Owens clarified that the committee is investigating the school in relation to the encampment that pro-Palestine students erected at the school during Feb. 10-14.

“This investigation, including the documents requested below, will inform the Committee’s consideration of whether there is a need for legislative reforms to protect Jewish students on college campuses and, if so, what those reforms should be,” the congressmen wrote.

According to Walberg and Owens, Bowdoin has failed to comply with a similar request from March 27 in which the committee asked the school for records about disciplinary action against students “relating to alleged antisemitic incidents (footnote in original) or any unauthorized encampment since October 7, 2023.”

“Despite repeated follow-up requests by Committee staff, Bowdoin has failed to meaningfully comply with these requests,” they wrote. Thus far, the school has mostly provided general summaries of its responses to the encampment, primarily including publicly available documents, according to the letter.

The two legislators concluded the document by criticizing Bowdoin for not sending the committee the documents in a timely manner; the school’s new deadline to comply was June 16.

“Bowdoin’s failure to produce these documents in a timely manner is unacceptable,” Walberg and Owens noted. “If Bowdoin should continue to refuse to fully comply with the Committee’s requests, the Committee will proceed with issuing compulsory process.”

Campus Reformreported in February about the encampment that activists erected at Bowdoin’s student union, at which pro-Palestine activists chanted, “the more you silence us, the louder we will be.” After the encampment resulted in the student union closing for a day, the administration opened up disciplinary proceedings.

“The demonstration repeatedly violated policies within Bowdoin’s Code of Community Standards and the participating students have entered the College’s disciplinary process,” Bowdoin Director of Communications Doug Cook told Campus Reform at the time.

Bowdoin initially suspended eight students involved in the encampment. However, in March, the administration reduced the temporary suspensions to disciplinary probation, which allowed the students to go back to campus.