04-17-2024, 11:38 PM
Free Speech debate shifts from social media back to universities, of the elite liberal type.
Seems a purge is under way at Columbia. (Edited for length)
Columbia Leaders Grilled at Antisemitism Hearing Over Faculty Comments
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/04/17/nyregion/columbia-antisemitism-hearing
5 takeaways from the Columbia University antisemitism hearing
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/17/takeaways-columbia-university-antisemitism-hearing-00152915
House lawmakers on Wednesday grilled Columbia University’s leaders over their enforcemet of antisemitism discipline policies for students and faculty.
But unlike her Ivy League colleagues, whose responses at an earlier antisemitism hearing landed them in turmoil, Columbia President Minouche Shafik left the event largely unscathed....
She told one GOP lawmaker that she spent “many hours” preparing, and another GOP lawmaker congratulated her on “saying the right things.”
“Columbia beats Harvard and UPenn!” Rep. Aaron Bean (R-Fla.) said. “Y’all have done something that they weren’t able to do. You’ve been able to condemn antisemitism without using the phrase: ‘It depends on the context.’ But the problem is: Action on campus doesn’t match your rhetoric today.”
Unlike the previous antisemitism hearing, lawmakers did not call for Shafik to resign. Republicans, and even some Democrats, focused on getting rid of university faculty who they say used antisemitic rhetoric....
Questions about whether protests on campus were anti-Jewish or anti-Muslim, or if phrases used by students were antisemitic, however, gave Shafik pause. In those moments the other Columbia leaders chimed in — but that didn’t stop lawmakers from poking holes in Shafik’s testimony.
Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), who helms the House education panel, called some of Shafik’s testimony misleading, and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), who had previously given the other presidents the toughest grilling, tried to accuse Shafik of changing her testimony.
Here are the top five moments from the hearing.
Stefanik tried, and tried, and tried, to create a memorable scene
The No. 4 Republican in the House, who was the first lawmaker to take her seat in the hearing room, showed up with a thick stack of documents littered with yellow sticky notes. Stefanik pressed Shafik on faculty who made antisemitic statements and how they were disciplined — which often wasn’t strict enough for Stefanik.
“On my watch, faculty who make remarks that cross the line in terms of antisemitism, there will be consequences for them,” Shafik said. “I have five cases at the moment who have either been taken out of the classroom or dismissed.”
She also accused Shafik of changing her testimony under oath several times about the status of a professor on campus and disciplinary actions taken against him by the school, among other topics.
But Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.) stole the line of questioning that helped Stefanik go viral in December and tanked Harvard and Penn’s presidents. “Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Columbia’s code of conduct?” Bonamici asked the four witnesses.
All responded: “Yes.”...
Columbia law professor Katherine Franke and visiting professor Mohamed Abdou were also mentioned. Abdou was slammed by lawmakers for writing on social media that he is “with the muqawamah (the resistance) be it Hamas and Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad.”
“He will never work at Columbia again,” Shafik said when asked about Abdou’s employment at the university. “He has been terminated.”
“I’m very personally committed to making sure that our faculty do not cross the line in terms of discrimination and harassment,” Shafik later added. “We have mechanisms that are now being enforced and on my watch, they will be enforced. I think many of these appointments were made in the past in a different era and that era is done.”
Lawmakers squabbled about the Bible and ‘folx’
GOP lawmakers asked bizarre questions about a document distributed among students in the university’s school of social work, whether Shafik knew what folx meant and if Shafik wanted “God to curse” her institution.
Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) asked Shafik whether she knew what the terms “Ashkenormativity” and “folx” meant because they were listed in a student document disseminated in the institution’s school of social work. The moment fell flat as Shafik refuted Banks’ claim that the document was officially issued by the institution. She said she did not use those terms and did not know what they meant.
“Is this how Columbia University spells the word ‘folks’?” Banks said.
To which Shafik responded: “No.”
Shafik was also quizzed on her knowledge of the Bible.
“Are you familiar with Genesis 12:3?” Rep. Rick Allen (R-Ga.) asked Shafik. “It was a covenant that God made with Abraham … If you bless Israel, I will bless you. If you curse Israel, I will curse you … Do you consider that a serious issue? I mean, do you want Columbia University to be cursed by God?”
Seems a purge is under way at Columbia. (Edited for length)
Columbia Leaders Grilled at Antisemitism Hearing Over Faculty Comments
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/04/17/nyregion/columbia-antisemitism-hearing
5 takeaways from the Columbia University antisemitism hearing
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/17/takeaways-columbia-university-antisemitism-hearing-00152915
House lawmakers on Wednesday grilled Columbia University’s leaders over their enforcemet of antisemitism discipline policies for students and faculty.
But unlike her Ivy League colleagues, whose responses at an earlier antisemitism hearing landed them in turmoil, Columbia President Minouche Shafik left the event largely unscathed....
She told one GOP lawmaker that she spent “many hours” preparing, and another GOP lawmaker congratulated her on “saying the right things.”
“Columbia beats Harvard and UPenn!” Rep. Aaron Bean (R-Fla.) said. “Y’all have done something that they weren’t able to do. You’ve been able to condemn antisemitism without using the phrase: ‘It depends on the context.’ But the problem is: Action on campus doesn’t match your rhetoric today.”
Unlike the previous antisemitism hearing, lawmakers did not call for Shafik to resign. Republicans, and even some Democrats, focused on getting rid of university faculty who they say used antisemitic rhetoric....
Questions about whether protests on campus were anti-Jewish or anti-Muslim, or if phrases used by students were antisemitic, however, gave Shafik pause. In those moments the other Columbia leaders chimed in — but that didn’t stop lawmakers from poking holes in Shafik’s testimony.
Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), who helms the House education panel, called some of Shafik’s testimony misleading, and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), who had previously given the other presidents the toughest grilling, tried to accuse Shafik of changing her testimony.
Here are the top five moments from the hearing.
Stefanik tried, and tried, and tried, to create a memorable scene
The No. 4 Republican in the House, who was the first lawmaker to take her seat in the hearing room, showed up with a thick stack of documents littered with yellow sticky notes. Stefanik pressed Shafik on faculty who made antisemitic statements and how they were disciplined — which often wasn’t strict enough for Stefanik.
“On my watch, faculty who make remarks that cross the line in terms of antisemitism, there will be consequences for them,” Shafik said. “I have five cases at the moment who have either been taken out of the classroom or dismissed.”
She also accused Shafik of changing her testimony under oath several times about the status of a professor on campus and disciplinary actions taken against him by the school, among other topics.
But Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.) stole the line of questioning that helped Stefanik go viral in December and tanked Harvard and Penn’s presidents. “Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Columbia’s code of conduct?” Bonamici asked the four witnesses.
All responded: “Yes.”...
Columbia law professor Katherine Franke and visiting professor Mohamed Abdou were also mentioned. Abdou was slammed by lawmakers for writing on social media that he is “with the muqawamah (the resistance) be it Hamas and Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad.”
“He will never work at Columbia again,” Shafik said when asked about Abdou’s employment at the university. “He has been terminated.”
“I’m very personally committed to making sure that our faculty do not cross the line in terms of discrimination and harassment,” Shafik later added. “We have mechanisms that are now being enforced and on my watch, they will be enforced. I think many of these appointments were made in the past in a different era and that era is done.”
Lawmakers squabbled about the Bible and ‘folx’
GOP lawmakers asked bizarre questions about a document distributed among students in the university’s school of social work, whether Shafik knew what folx meant and if Shafik wanted “God to curse” her institution.
Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) asked Shafik whether she knew what the terms “Ashkenormativity” and “folx” meant because they were listed in a student document disseminated in the institution’s school of social work. The moment fell flat as Shafik refuted Banks’ claim that the document was officially issued by the institution. She said she did not use those terms and did not know what they meant.
“Is this how Columbia University spells the word ‘folks’?” Banks said.
To which Shafik responded: “No.”
Shafik was also quizzed on her knowledge of the Bible.
“Are you familiar with Genesis 12:3?” Rep. Rick Allen (R-Ga.) asked Shafik. “It was a covenant that God made with Abraham … If you bless Israel, I will bless you. If you curse Israel, I will curse you … Do you consider that a serious issue? I mean, do you want Columbia University to be cursed by God?”
![[Image: 4CV0TeR.png]](https://i.imgur.com/4CV0TeR.png)
