Columbia/Barnard administration forsakes freedom and safety, looks ready to initiate violence

Gaza/Israel visits Manhattan

After a dozen years, will it come again to this?

Columbia University has gone all-in against free speech. While I have been happy to criticize protest that includes threats, the pro-Palestinian protest on the Columbia University campus was by all accounts peaceful and conducted by students who belonged on campus, having paid heftily for the privilege.

CU, the NYC mayor, Eric Adams, and the NYPD have all made statements that walk right up to the line of accusing the protestors of violence by repeatedly asserting that they were removed to protect the safety of others. This Associated Press video includes some of the important moments from the Mayoral/NYPD joint press conference:

https://apnews.com/d025b40a25db413d8303865656009a29

The Guardian reports on a number of disturbing details, including this:

According to student journalists reporting from WKCR, Columbia University’s student radio station, one arrested student protester asked the police to be allowed to go to their dorm to collect medication and was denied; as a result, they went into shock.

A “Joint Statement by the American Association of University Professors, Barnard and Columbia Chapters” also alleged that the university hadn’t consulted with the University senate, as required by its bylaws, and strongly condemned the university’s president Minouche Shafik, referencing not only their behaviour over the weekend, but also their testimony before congress last week:

President Shafik, the co-chairs of the Board of Trustees, and the former Dean of the Law School allowed this freedom for Columbia faculty to be publicly shredded. They effectively pledged, on the Congressional record, to end academic freedom at Columbia.

President Shafik’s decision on April 18 to call upon the New York Police Department to arrest over one hundred students for engaging in a peaceful protest is a grotesque violation of norms of shared governance. Section 444 of University Statutes, put in place after the police attacks of 1968, requires “consultation” with the University Senate executive committee before anything so drastic as yesterday’s attack would be permitted. President Shafik’s administration did not consult; they informed the committee of its decision. [emphasis in the original]

The peaceful protest was supported by at least some Jewish students and had caused no problems that I could discover, and yet CU summarily suspended students, deactivated their electronic key cards necessary to access their own dorm rooms, and even, according to Slate and some other sources, acted to shut down the student-run campus radio station.

Late Saturday night, the school’s safety guards entered the studio and directed all the student journalists to immediately vacate the building, thus busting up the 24-hour broadcast streak. It was announced live on the air. After some heated back and forth and the intervention of a faculty adviser, the campus police relented.

Reportedly, many arrested protesters are returning to campus and remaining peaceful. What comes next, though, is anyone’s guess.

I’ve been a part of student protests on college campuses. I’ve also been assaulted by another student not part of any protest at all. With the high level of emotion and the peaceful protest being described as terrorism by some — including a business school professor, Shai Davidai — anything could happen.

Every regular reader here knows that I am a principled and relentless proponent of non-violence, but when protestors do not start violence, the state has a way of finding its own excuses. I have not forgotten the day 12 years ago when the University of California pepper sprayed its own peaceful students, however much the chancellors might wish that I do.

I fear very much this won’t end until injuries are inflicted. I’m glad to say that the students don’t look like they’re likely to start any assaults, but I don’t think that’s enough. The university administration is taking a very dangerous path.

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I should add 2 things:

1: The daughter of Rep. Ilhan Omar (Isra Hirsi) was among the arrested.

and

2: With Passover beginning tonight, it’s understandable that fears would run particularly high. I want to acknowledge that. We know that anti-Jewish terrorists have been known to plan attacks for Jewish holy days. But while it’s understandable that fears would be higher today, to my mind that’s not a justification for what’s been happening at Columbia/Barnard. In particular the effort to shut down the radio station shows that the specific actions have nothing to do with safety even if the overall motivation to act does.