The book follows Stefanik’s viral confrontation with three college presidents over whether calls for the genocide of Jews violated university rules.
Representative Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.), a prominent ally of President Trump who is widely expected to run for governor next year, is set to release a book lambasting the current state of higher education.
Stefanik’s book, Poisoned Ivies, will critique the academic degradation and ideological conformity that’s taken hold at the nation’s leading institutions of higher learning.
The book follows Stefanik’s viral confrontation with three elite college presidents in December 2023 over whether calls for the genocide of Jews violated their university codes of conduct. The presidents of the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology all failed to definitively answer Stefanik’s seemingly simply queries during a congressional hearing.
Stefanik’s questioning at the hearing sparked a national conversation about left-wing domination of college campuses and the antisemitism festering among left-wing student groups.
The reckoning quickly led to the resignation of former UPenn president Liz Magill because of a revolt from donors and potential reputational damage for the Philadelphia school. Former Harvard president Claudine Gay resigned a few weeks later after facing scrutiny for prior academic plagiarism in addition to Harvard’s campus climate.
Last year, Anti-Israel demonstrations became widespread at colleges and universities when student activists set up tent encampments to protest U.S. support for Israel’s war in Gaza. The protests occurred nationwide in summer 2024 after Columbia University’s prolonged encampment received national attention and continued the reckoning that began with Stefanik’s questioning.
A Harvard alumna, Stefanik’s book tells the story of her impact on higher education in America and charts a path forward for universities.
“The moral and academic crisis within America’s most elite universities is wide and deep, and it is already having far-reaching and devastating impacts,” Stefanik said in a statement.
“The horrific stories from students are riveting and it is truly shocking that this scourge of antisemitism is happening in the 21st century in the United States of America. I am proud to lead boldly with strength and moral clarity on one of the most important issues of our time,” she added.
The book will join the ranks of right-wing titles published over the past several decades to take colleges and universities to task for being too progressive and one-sided. But Stefanik’s title comes at a moment when conservatives are using the federal government and state governments to challenge the longstanding problems many intellectuals have identified.
The Trump administration has launched civil rights investigations into numerous educational institutions because of their policies on antisemitism, gender ideology, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Those federal probes have led to significant concessions from top schools, including UPenn and Columbia University, after negotiations with the Trump administration over various school policies.
Stefanik’s willingness to confront antisemitism led President Trump to nominate her for United Nations Ambassador. But the nomination was pulled in March to protect the House GOP’s slim majority.
A resident of upstate New York, Stefanik is expected to announce her 2026 gubernatorial campaign after the election. In the meantime, she has routinely issued blistering critiques of New York governor Kathy Hochul (D) and socialist New York City mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani (D).