Nemat “Minouche” Shafik is the latest leader of an elite US university to be called to testify before members of the US Congress on how her institution has responded to protests amid the Israel-Gaza war.
Her testimony comes four months after the presidents of Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were also called to testify on the subject. That contentious, Republican-led hearing led to the resignation of Penn President Liz Magill and Harvard President Claudine Gay.
Protests since October 7 have forced private higher education institutions to grapple with their free speech policies. Pro-Palestine protesters have alleged that they have been unjustly stifled by university authorities on trumped-up allegations of hate speech. In turn, several university leaders have been accused of not doing enough to counter anti-Semitism on campus.