The House Committee on Education and Workforce criticized Northwestern’s satellite campus in Qatar in a Tuesday majority staff report on the spread of antisemitism on University campuses.
The report titled, “How Campuses Became Hotbeds: The Rise of Radical Antisemitism on College Campuses,” listed actors that representatives found to have spread antisemitism on campuses, naming specific policies, faculty members and student organizations as case studies.
Both NU and Georgetown University were mentioned in relation to their satellite campuses located in Qatar. The report stated that these campuses “are failing” in “promoting Western values and liberal education abroad,” like Title VI principles and free speech.
“Northwestern University in Qatar has provided its students access to a high-quality, western education and helped further the foreign policy interests of the United States government,” a University spokesperson wrote in a Wednesday statement. “State Departments under both Republican and Democratic presidents have supported the continued operation of the Northwestern in Qatar campus.”
The Tuesday report alleged that students, particularly members of the NU-Q chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, and faculty members perpetuate antisemitism. The report included statements made by faculty members regarding the Israel-Hamas War and condemned backlash from members of the NU-Q community to statements made by the Evanston campus about the conflict.
Former University President Michael Schill was grilled about NU-Q while testifying before the Committee on Education and Workforce in May 2024 and again in a closed session in August.
The report also included concerns that NU-Q was pressured by the Qatar Foundation to align its messaging with QF.
“I have never been asked by anyone at the University – to my memory – never asked to do anything – change a decision, do any new course of action – because of a request from the Qatar Foundation or the University, NU-Q,” Schill told the committee in August.
Following Schill’s testimony in May 2024, Francisco Marmolejo, QF’s president of higher education, said in a statement that QF “is not in the business of buying, or attempting to buy, influence in U.S. higher education institutions.”
The report also alleged the University has maintained its presence in Doha for financial gain.
Schill has previously denied there was an economic motivation behind its satellite campus.
“The U.S. government wanted (NU) to be there,” Schill told the committee in August.
The NU-Q campus was established in 2008 during interim President Henry Bienen’s first presidency. Bienen told The Daily in October that its founding was “circumstantial” and not undertaken for financial gain.
The University spokesperson added that NU is currently undergoing a multi-year review of its operations in Qatar. The current contract with the Qatar Foundation is set to expire at the end of the 2027-2028 academic year.
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