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Cal Poly president to get grilled by congress over professor’s actions

May 3, 2025

Cal Polu President Jeffrey Armstrong

By KAREN VELIE

The U.S. House of Representatives ordered Cal Poly San Luis Obispo to provide an alleged videotape of a professor verbally harassing Jewish students on the campus prior to a May 7 hearing regarding antisemitism on campus, shining a light on the issues Congress plans to investigate.

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo President Jeffrey Armstrong has been called to speak at a hearing before Congress on May 7. Armstrong, DePaul University President Robert L. Manuel and Haverford College president Wendy Raymond were ordered to attend the hearing to discuss their failures to address antisemitism on campus.

During an April 4, 2024 lecture by an Israel military veteran, a Cal Poly professor held a Palestinian flag while confronting Jewish students and attendees in the lobby saying, “You are Zionists – you are part of the KKK,” according to an April 21 letter from the Committee on Education and Workforce to Armstrong.

The professor is also accused of placing the Palestinian flag over the face of a woman as she entered the lobby while saying, “Fuck Israel.”

The committee sent Armstrong a list of items he needed to provide Congress by April 30. The request provides insights on the topics committee members are looking into.

  • Any recording of the April 4, 2024 incident with the professor.
  • Records of changes to the student Constitution and Code of Conduct made after Oct. 7, 2023.
  • Records of changes to Cal Poly’s masking policy governing facial coverings made after Oct. 7, 2023.
  • Meeting minutes and circulated materials provided to the Board of Trustees after Aug. 1, 2023, that mention antisemitism on Cal Poly’s campus.
  • Records regarding the relationship between Cal Poly and the Cal Poly Students for the Liberation of Palestine, Cal Poly Students for Justice in Palestine, and Cal Poly Jewish Voices for Peace groups.

“The upcoming hearing will enable the Committee to hear from you firsthand, President Armstrong, about incidents of antisemitism that have taken place on campus under your watch, any disciplinary actions the university has taken in response to these incidents, and any broader changes that the school has made to address campus antisemitism,” according to the committee’s letter to Armstrong.

The letter also noted Cal Poly’s poor rating on the Anti-Defamation League’s antisemitism report card, the result of mutiple campus antisemitic incidents. Last month, the grade was changed from an “F” to a “D” after the university established a Presidential Antisemitism Task Force.

“As you know, the committee continues to investigate and gather information about the rise of antisemitism on college campuses, including Cal Poly, which has surged in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attack against Israel,” according to the committee’s letter to Armstrong. “In the month after the attack, antisemitic incidents in the United States increased 388%.”

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Other than dropping a flag over someone’s face, I don’t see a problem with anything that professor did according to this article. Hardly anti-semtic in the least even. Nothing said about Jews. Israel and Judeism are two separate things. Freedom of speech is more important than some hurt feelings. “Sticks and stones…”


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Cal Poly just padded their bureaucracy by creating a brand new “Assistant Vice President for Public Safety” with a big salary and likely a couple of new associate assistant vice presidents to do all the work for the new position. Moved the Chief of Police into that new position, with a big raise, so now they have to hire a new Chief. With all the cops they have in that little department (mostly writing skateboarding tickets) you’d think they have enough people to keep the hate crimes under control, but no. They have more than ever.


23

Given the number of security cameras around the campus there should be plenty of video of the incident, unless of course Cal Poly’s system had a technical issue “cough cough”


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