Ilhan Omar Asks Cardona About Efforts To Combat Islamophobia On College Campuses

4 months ago

At today's House Education Committee hearing, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) questioned Education Sec. Miguel Cardona about Islamophobia on college campuses.

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00:00Thank you very much, Madam Chair, I yield back.

00:02Thank you, Mr. Bean.

00:04Ms. Omar, you're recognized for five minutes.

00:09It's good to see you, Mr. Secretary.

00:12Thank you so much for joining us.

00:15I got a little jealous about everybody thanking you for coming to their district, so we should soon see you in CD5.

00:22I wanted to talk a little bit about the rise in targeting and

00:27harassment of students on campus that are protesting against the genocide that's taking place in Gaza,

00:35including Jewish students, black, brown, Arab, and Muslim students.

00:39Emotions and fears are running high as students of all backgrounds say they are fearful of

00:45escalations of anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and bigotry.

00:50My office has received countless stories from Jewish students, Arab students,

00:56Muslim students who have been targeted, harassed, and alienated on campus.

01:02Just because they are standing against the genocide that's happening in Gaza.

01:07I know that you've been meeting with students, parents, and leaders.

01:10Is there something that you can share with us about the rise of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia on college campuses?

01:18Thank you for the opportunity.

01:21When I hear from students and families directly, they're scared.

01:24They're scared.

01:26Safety on campus is something that they don't feel like they should compromise.

01:31We strongly condemn any acts of violence or discrimination on campus.

01:35We've been very clear about that.

01:36But what I'm hearing from families is that they're scared.

01:39That children are having to hide symbols of their faith on their way to class so that they're not targeted.

01:44That, to me, as a father and as an educator, is something that I stand against.

01:50I know that the administration has condemned a lot of speech on campus.

01:57What I have not heard be condemned is statements like, kill all Muslims,

02:04kill all Arabs, level Gaza.

02:07Do you condemn those kind of comments?

02:11Absolutely.

02:12Thank you.

02:13Do you give your commitment to this committee and the American people that the department will investigate complaints of Islamophobia,

02:20anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and anti-Muslim discrimination?

02:25Yes.

02:26Thank you.

02:27What additional support could Congress provide for you to be able to ensure robust oversight and investigation and accountability is carried out?

02:35Well, thank you for that.

02:36We're asking for a $22 million increase in our budget.

02:39We were flat funded last year.

02:41In 2009, we had 58 more investigators and a third of the cases that we have today.

02:47In 2019, there were 10,000 cases a year.

02:502021, 22, there were 19,000.

02:53The increase is extremely high.

02:55We need additional investigators to close out these cases and make sure we're providing support to our students.

03:01Do you have an idea of the number of cases that are pending at the moment?

03:07We have 149, excuse me, 145 cases on shared ancestry open.

03:14On college campuses?

03:15On college campuses, yeah.

03:18I want to pivot.

03:19Last time you were here, I asked you about the Mohella frustration that a lot of

03:27borrowers were experiencing, feeling like their rights were being violated.

03:34You talked about how concerned I was about renewing their contract.

03:40I know that the department has done some work in taking some of the cases off.

03:45It seems like you all are going through some processing pauses as the transition happens.

03:52How are you ensuring that the borrowers do not have an interruption as the transition and the pause continues?

03:57Thank you for that.

03:58And let me just go back to, we have 145 open cases.

04:01100 cases since October 7th.

04:06And they may include K-12, but 100 cases since, and I believe those are college.

04:11I can get that information to you.

04:12We are transitioning some cases, as Mohella requested, to other servicers.

04:17We're communicating with borrowers to try to minimize disruption for public service loan forgiveness.

04:21Okay, and I'm wondering how

04:27the department is planning to make sure those that remain with Mohella are able to receive a better service.

04:34Well look, I think part of the fixing the broken higher education system is making sure that we're looking at it from the perspective of the consumer.

04:42We need to improve student borrower services, really.

04:47And part of that, a lot of the work that we're doing at FSA, and just contracting, is to improve services.

04:54We're also holding folks accountable, all servicers.

04:56And there have been payments that we've withheld because the services weren't great to our borrowers.

05:02So we are holding them more accountable, and we're providing more resources.

05:06And as you mentioned with Mohella, we're moving some cases over at their request to make the process smoother for our borrowers.

05:13Wonderful, thank you, I yield back.

05:14Thank you.

05:16Thank you.

Ilhan Omar Asks Cardona About Efforts To Combat Islamophobia On College Campuses

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