Columbia University: Three Officials Resign Under Fire

Along with all the other sordid goings-on at Columbia University, we have been following the story of 4 university officials whose text messages back and forth to each other last May caused an uproar that came to the attention of Congress. In the texts, the officials were basically mocking the concerns of Jewish students about anti-Semitism on campus, which has been a problem at Columbia for many years. Initially, the president of the university, Minouche Shafik, who is under tremendous heat in Congress, placed the officials on leave from their positions. In the past days, 3 of the 4 have resigned. The resignations have been reported by The College Fix and the Columbia Spectator.

Along with the belated decision by Shafik to send police in to break up the occupation of a building by pro-Palestinian mobs, this is a positive step. But there is so much more to do. The entire culture of Columbia, like most of the rest of US academia, is rotten with left-wing radicalism, pro-Palestinian disruptions to campus life, and out-and-out Jew-hatred. These officials should have been fired months ago when these texts came to light. There are also a number of professors at Columbia who, for years, have been feeding into this vile anti-Semitism on campus. The reputation of this once proud university is in the toilet, along with other so-called prestigious universities like Harvard, the University of California (pick your campus), Cornell, Rutgers, and too many others to list here. What is needed is a change of culture in our universities, which will take time. In my opinion, it can only be brought about by pressure from both the public and Congress. The current House of Representatives, at least, is doing its job as exemplified by the Committee on Education chaired by Virginia Foxx R-NC). The universities must be placed on notice that public funding will be slashed if they don’t clean up their act and start protecting their Jewish students. Peaceful protests are OK as long as there is no disruption, construction, violence, and hate speech. Occupying spaces and buildings with occupations and encampments is not OK. Targeting Jewish students is not OK.

While I defend peaceful protest, I think it is time for universities to reexamine this culture of protests on campus. Is this the purpose of a university? Is indoctrinating students with a professor’s political beliefs, OK? They think it is because they are always defending the “academic freedom” of their professors. I disagree. When I was teaching at UC Irvine, I never brought my personal beliefs into the classroom although I did express them in public forums on campus. There is a distinction. My point is that it is the job of the university to educate, not to teach students how to be activists and protest on campus to the detriment of the well-being and safety of others and the smooth operation of the institution.

The solution? Hit them in the pocketbooks. No more donations, no more public funding, a reduction in student enrollments, and hands-on examination by Congress and the Department of Education. That is at the federal level. The state governments have a role to play as well. 

These points will surely bring a response: “Isn’t that what the Nazi government did to the universities when they took power?”

That’s actually a good point on the surface. Almost immediately after taking power, one of the Nazis’ first moves was to “cleanse the universities” of Jews (both professors and students) as well as those who did not go along with their program. There is a distinction, however. In 1933, when Hitler became chancellor, the only significant unrest on Germany’s campuses was on the part of pro-Nazi students. In fact, the universities were not engaged in radical teaching of their students to the point of indoctrination. As for the Jews, they were not engaged in campus unrest. They were not occupying buildings, and creating encampments. They were not disrupting classes and events they did not approve of. (The Nazi students sure were.) They were not bullying and intimidating other students. The Jewish professors were not teaching their students that their country was an evil entity. (To be clear, Germany did fall into evil beginning January 30, 1933 when Hitler became chancellor.) Under Hitler, the universities fell into line and followed the Nazi government’s directives.

The reform that I imagine in the US is not forcing universities to fall in line with the dictates and philosophy of the party in power. If students are to be expelled, it would not be for their race, religion, or political affiliation. It would be for bad behavior, examples of which  I referenced above. Professors can have their diversity of thought, but it is not their job to instill their beliefs into students in the classroom. As for university presidents, if they lose control of their campuses to mobs who engage in violence, intimidation, and disruption, if they allow their Jewish students to be targeted on campus, they should be replaced. Understandably, that would be more difficult to accomplish in private universities as opposed to public. So I disagree with the comparison, but our leaders should always kind the Nazi example as a yardstick.

Going back to the latest events at Columbia, there are encouraging signs that reform could start taking place, but these could well be only temporary victories, battles that have been won while the war continues. These latest victories have only come about due to public pressure and threats to the bottom line. Universities are huge money-making institutions, and if that money dries up, that will bring about the changes in my view. At the end of the day, nobody is obliged to give money to a university (I recognize the relationships between states and public state universities, but funding can be reduced), and nobody is obliged to enroll in a particular university. Most, if all states formulate their annual funding of state colleges and universities based partially on enrollment numbers (among several other factors).

At any rate, we can cheer Columbia’s latest news, but so much needs to be done. It will be a long trek, but if we can reform our universities and get them back to the business of education (always with the Nazi Germany exception in mind as a precaution), we can fix what has become a serious societal problem.