Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) shook up higher education with her pointed hearing questioning of university administrators over their tolerance of antisemitism. Now she is telling the full story of the troubling decline of American universities.
Threshold Editions, a division of Simon & Schuster, will publish POISONED IVIES: The Inside Account of the Academic and Moral Rot at America’s Elite Universities by Stefanik on April 7, 2026.
“For decades, conservatives have warned about the decline of higher education in the United States,” reads a release announcing Stefanik’s book. “Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, a Harvard alumna, lit the fuse for the current fight when she asked the presidents of America’s most prestigious universities a simple moral question in a Congressional hearing: Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate your university’s code of conduct on bullying and harassment?”
“The hearing heard around the world was unlike any other experience I have had serving at the highest levels of Congress over the past decade,” Stefanik said. “It set off an earthquake in academia and delivered accountability that was long overdue. 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. 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.”
Stefanik’s grillings throughout multiple hearings even included laying into a college president for relying on flashcards to answer questions surrounding campus antisemitism.
“Her bold and incisive questioning of the presidents of Harvard, MIT, and the University of Pennsylvania sparked a national reckoning and led to the resignation of multiple college presidents,” her publisher’s statement continues. “The Congressional hearing earned billions of views worldwide and set the record for the most viewed Congressional testimony in history.”
Stefanik, who serves as the Chair of House Republican Leadership, has fought to defund higher education across the board unless actions are taken to address radical indoctrination and antisemitism. Her efforts include sounding the alarm to address left-wing bias in the selection process for the federally funded Harry S. Truman Scholarship after a pro-Hamas student became a recipient and a review revealed dozens of past winners “explicitly committed to left-leaning causes.”
According to her publisher, POISONED IVIES “delivers an unflinching account of what has happened on college campuses, how colleges lost their way, and how we must save American higher education from itself. Congresswoman Stefanik exposes how the nation’s most prestigious institutions abandoned their founding ideas of freedom of thought, open debate, and academic excellence, and instead embraced a culture of censorship, radical Left groupthink, antisemitism, and moral cowardice that has spread far beyond campus walls into every corner of American life.”
Calling the book “both a damning exposé and a blueprint for reform,” her publisher’s statement promises “a timely story of courage, conviction, and the power of one voice to challenge the status quo in American higher education and deliver a long-overdue reckoning.”
Stefanik is widely projected as an eventual candidate for governor in New York, with polling revealing a formidable candidacy.
In a recent poll first reported by Breitbart News, Stefanik is nipping at Gov. Kathy Hochul’s (D-NY) heels after the embattled governor endorsed Democrat nominee Zohran Mamdani for New York City mayor. According to that survey, Hochul leads only 48 percent to 43 percent, with Stefanik leading by a point after voters are made aware of their positions.
Stefanik, who has emerged as a close ally of President Donald Trump, has slammed New York Democrats, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, for embracing Mamdani’s candidacy.
Bradley Jaye is Deputy Political Editor for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter and Instagram @BradleyAJaye.
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