COLUMBIA FACULTY PROMISE ‘FIGHT’ TO TAKE BACK 'OUR UNIVERSITY'
PROFESSORS JOIN STUDENT REVOLT AFTER PRES. NEMAT SHAFIK SACRIFICES ACADEMIC FREEDOM, ORDERS ARREST OF 108 STUDENT PROTESTERS
Columbia University Pres. Baroness Nemat “Minouche” Shafik is facing a spiraling crisis with her faculty and students in open revolt.
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Columbia University faculty are in open revolt against Pres. Nemat Shafik after she "capitulated" to "Congressional inquisitors" and promised she would "end academic freedom at Columbia," according to a faculty statement published on Friday.
"We have lost confidence in our president and administration," their statement said. "We pledge to fight to regain our university."
Columbia's president ordered the NYPD to arrest 108 students for peacefully protesting, on the University's campus, what they call Israel's genocide against the Palestinians on Thursday.
Even the NYPD thought Pres. Shafik was wrong in ordering the arrests.
"So let me put this in perspective, the students that were arrested were peaceful, offered no resistance whatsoever, just saying what they wanted to say in a peaceful manner," NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said at a news conference after the arrests.
Pres. Shafik's decision to order arrests created images so powerful they were used as propaganda by a nation some consider an enemy of the United States: Iran.
Now the protests Shafik sought to squelch are spreading to other colleges.
The mass-arrests of students came one day after Pres. Shafik testified before a House of Representative Committee on Education and the Workforce. Ostensibly, the purpose of the hearing was to inquire into "Columbia University’s Response to Anti-Semitism.”
During questioning, members of the committee presumed any criticism of Israel was anti-semitic. One committee member, Rick W. Allen (R-Ga.), even said the Bible requires America to unconditionally support Israel or else it would be "cursed by God."
Pres. Shafik, instead of defending her students' right to think for themselves and protest, said Columbia was disciplining professors for exercising academic freedom.
“On my watch, faculty who make remarks that cross the line in terms of antisemitism, there will be consequences for them,” Pres. Shafik said. “I have five cases at the moment who have either been taken out of the classroom or dismissed.”
In their scalding letter, Columbia's faculty condemned Pres. Shafik's failure to defend the professors as "profoundly disturbing."
"In the face of slanderous assaults on Columbia faculty and students," the statement charged, not only did Pres. Shafik "not object—she capitulated to their demands."
Pres. Shafik's decision to have students arrested for protesting the next day was made without consultation with the University Senate, as required by University law, the faculty revealed in their statement.
Other elements of Columbia's faculty denounced Pres. Shafik on Friday too.
The Human Rights Institute at its world-class law school said Pres. Shafik's action "raises serious concerns about the University’s respect for human rights and its commitment to free expression."
Public Interest Honorees of the law school "unequivocally condemn" Columbia for "repression of pro-Palestine voices."
The Knight First Amendment Institute said it was "surprised and dismayed."
Irene Mulvey, national president of the Association of University Professors, blasted Shafik for throwing "academic freedom and Columbia University faculty under the bus."
Serene Jones, president of Union Theological Seminary, a Columbia University affiliate, called the student arrests "a horrible, awful day in the midst of ravaging, cruel times."
Pres. Jones promised her students: "We have never and we will never take the actions that occurred today."
And the editorial board of the Columbia student newspaper, The Spectator, accused Pres. Shafik of "emptiness and duplicity." She was "all too willing to succumb to pressure from representatives, essentially conflating pro-Palestinian campus activism with antisemitism."
Katherine Franke, the James L. Dohr Professor of Law at Columbia University, was one of the teachers singled out by Rep. Elise Stefanik (D-NY) during Wednesday's Congressional hearing. She responded on Friday by accusing Rep. Stefanik with lying about her.
She also accused Pres. Shafik of lying to Congress "several times."
Prof. Franke demanded an apology. Student protests at Columbia continued on Sunday.
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