Columbia University: A National Disgrace

“………..antithetical to our values and go against the principles of open inquiry, tolerance, and inclusivity that define us.”

For years now, Columbia University has been one of the most notorious universities in the country when it comes to anti-Semitic harassment of Jewish students. The overwhelming majority of incidents are linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and since October 7, 2023, the incidents have exploded as they have on so many other countries around the nation. Yet no campus seems to have outdone Columbia. The utter indifference to the problem on the part of former Columbia President Minouche Shafik led to her resignation after her disastrous performance testifying before the US House of Representatives, Committee on Education and the Workforce. 

I am linking a current article in The Free Press which describes the experience of two Jewish students from Columbia’s sister campus, Barnard College, when they attended a pro-Palestinian exhibition at the Alpha Delta Phi (ADP) Literary Society near the Columbia campus. It was a two-day exhibition featuring among other things paraphernalia used to break into and occupy a campus building last April during the months that followed the October 7 attacks in Israel when encampments and occupied campus buildings were the order of the day. It also glorified the October 7 attackers and featured a talk by activist Nerdeen Kiswani, who ranted about taking over the city, which she described as a world finance capital, not so subtly linking finance to Zionism. You get her drift. There was even a recitation of words from the will of Yahya Sinwar, the butcher who planned and led the October 7 attack.

In recent years, Columbia has had one of the largest numbers of Jewish students of any university in the nation. Yet, in spite of that, few if any other universities have had more problems than Columbia when it comes to anti-Jewish incidents. As mentioned in the article, the notorious Columbia professor, Joseph Massad is still employed there, and in fact, will be teaching a class on Zionism in the spring.

It is clear that Columbia has learned nothing from the events of the past year or so. All they can do is prattle on about how incidents of anti-Semitism on campus are  “antithetical to our values and go against the principles of open inquiry, tolerance, and inclusivity that define us.”

It doesn’t wash.

So what is the solution? I would personally like to see this university shut down, but not by government decree or one of those famous FBI raids, like the one at Mar-a-Lago. What is needed is a cutting off of all public funding and grants to Columbia. True, Columbia is a private university, but they still receive money from outside sources. Alumni and other donors should wake up and cease their giving to such an institution. In addition, parents, especially Jewish parents, should send their kids to other universities that are more welcoming.

Near the end of his first term as President, Trump put universities on notice that if they failed to protect their Jewish students, government funding might be cut off. That should be a hallmark of this second administration. I expect that his Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights will play an active role in investigating offending schools. In fact, since October 7, 2023, they have opened investigations into several universities, and I hope this will increase dramatically under Trump. We don’t have to use police state tactics. Just shut off the flow of money.