Cal Poly President Armstrong Testified before Congress This Week On Campus Antisemitism

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. - Cal Poly university president Jeffrey Armstrong testified before Congress this week about the rise in antisemitic incidents on campus.

President Armstrong and two other university presidents received a letter from the House Committee on Education and Workforce asking them to testify about antisemitic incidents on campus.

The education and workforce committee cited a 388% surge nationally in antisemitic incidents in the month after the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023.

The Anti-Defamation League gave Cal Poly a “D” grade on their Campus Antisemitism Report Card.... which led to president Jeffrey Armstrong's testimony before the committee on Wednesday.

“The violence permeated that day must be condemned without equivocation, and the targeting of Jewish students on campuses across the U.S. that followed was terrible and unacceptable. Both as a university president and a human being. This is a matter I take particularly seriously. We have to do better,” says president Armstrong.

Incidents cited by the house and anti-defamation league include alleged verbal harassment by a cal poly professor and threatening graffiti.

Armstrong expressed how seriously he takes the matter.

“I want to emphasize that our goal is continuous improvement. We will work to give each student the safest possible environment free from discrimination and religious intolerance so they can learn, grow and succeed. We call it being ready day one,” says president Armstrong.

Several students say the Cal Poly campus normally has a well-managed and non-threatening atmosphere, one that’s quite conducive to learning.

“I feel very, very safe at Cal Poly and the entirety of SLO as well. And I've never really had an issue with like, you know, finding a safe space to study or a safe place to go,” says Hudson Lund, a first-year student.

“Cal Poly is a really, like, comfortable place. I'll go to Subway at two in the morning and feel totally fine walking a total of like a miles from my dorm to subway at back in two in the morning. I can't like when it's night. I can't really walk around and not see a police officer, which is also like a very reassuring thing,” says Kennan Knowles, another first-year student.

The Trump administration is scrutinizing many college campuses across the nation, demanding Jewish students be kept safe lest their federal funding be pulled.

Some universities have pushed back against those demands.

And the American Jewish Committee has said it welcomes actions preventing antisemitism, but that overly broad funding cuts or punishment will hurt the standing of American universities.