Several Ivy League school presidents resigned after facing Stefanik’s relentless grilling
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.) was instrumental in holding university presidents accountable as anti-Semitism ran rampant across their campuses following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack. Now, the House Republican Leadership chair is releasing a book offering a behind-the-scenes look at how “moral rot” took hold in the nation’s top universities.
In Poisoned Ivies: The Inside Account of the Academic and Moral Rot at America’s Elite Universities, slated for an April 7, 2026, release, Stefanik “reveals how America’s elite universities, once proud symbols of academic excellence, have become centers of far-left indoctrination, division, and moral rot in this riveting, behind-the-scenes inside account,” according to Simon & Schuster, the book’s publisher.
Stefanik, a staunch Israel ally and Harvard University alumna, relentlessly interrogated university leaders who failed to rein in unchecked campus anti-Semitism in the wake of Hamas’s massacre that killed over 1,200 Israeli citizens.
In a now-infamous Dec. 5, 2023, congressional hearing, Stefanik demanded that the Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and University of Pennsylvania presidents answer whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” violates their schools’ code of conduct or rules regarding bullying and harassment. All three said it was “a context-dependent decision,” which ultimately led to the resignations of Harvard president Claudine Gay and Penn’s Liz Magill.
Columbia University president Minouche Shafik also resigned several months after facing a grilling from Stefanik. Shafik told the House Education Committee that “anti-Jewish protests” had not taken place at Columbia, then relented and reversed course after Stefanik pressed her.
Simon & Schuster describes Stefanik’s upcoming book as “an unflinching account of what has gone wrong on America’s college campuses.”
“Both a damning exposé and a blueprint for reform, Poisoned Ivies is a timely story of courage and conviction and the power of one voice to challenge the status quo in American higher education and delivers a long-overdue reckoning,” the publisher continues. “A must-read for anyone concerned with the fight for our nation’s soul.”
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