Columbia University is in “urgent need” of changes to combat on-campus antisemitism, according to a sweeping report released Friday — which found some professors “minimized” Jewish students’ concerns of rising hate.
The Ivy League did little to stop the ostracization, humiliation and verbal abuse of Jewish and Israeli students in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, the institution’s antisemitism task force said in the lengthy report.
The 91-page document offered a slew of recommendations to counteract the “serious and pervasive” problems that the faculty-led task force uncovered through nearly 500 student testimonials.
Many of the interviewed students described losing a sense of security and safety on campus that existed before anti-Israel protests rocked the campus, leading students to suffer “crippling anxiety” that they could be targeted at any moment.
“I don’t know how to continue on this campus,” one anonymous student testimony read.
“They call for Zionists off our campus. Many of the faculty who are less aware only know that police were on campus; they don’t know what is going on. They have to know what is going on, [but] they don’t. Please make clear what is actually going on.
“None of us deserve to be unsafe on campus. We have a difference of views and that is fine.”
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Columbia University faculty played a big part in this sense of danger, the task force found.
Professors and other staff — including “high-level administrators” — were slow to report instances of harassment on campus, or pushed the issue down the line to other staff members, according to the report. Faculty was also accused of publicly downplaying the situation as protests at the Ivy League peppered headlines across the nation.
“The experiences of these students demonstrated that there is an urgent need to reshape everyday social norms across the campuses of Columbia University,” the task force wrote.
Later in the report, the panel added: “Although some faculty and staff responded with compassion and determination, others minimized the concerns of these students, reacting sluggishly and ineffectively even to the most clear-cut violations. Even students who had successfully reported an incident spoke of a recurring lack of enforcement of existing University rules and policies.”
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To combat the issues outlined in the sweeping report, the task force offered several recommendations, including revamped anti-bias training for students and staff and a revised system for reporting complaints about antisemitism.
It also said student groups should stop issuing political statements unrelated to their missions, saying Jewish students felt pushed out of many clubs and organizations.
The task force issued its report just four days before the scheduled start of classes for Columbia’s fall semester and less than three weeks after embattled Columbia University president Minouche Shafik suddenly resigned.
Shafik left the institution after less than a year at the helm — which was marked by constant and sometimes destructive anti-Israel protests. The ex-president blamed that “period of turmoil” for her shocking departure.
Interim President Katrina Armstrong has already promised to expand training and streamline its handling of harassment complaints in line with the new report’s recommendations under her term.
“This is an opportunity to acknowledge the harm that has been done and to pledge to make the changes necessary to do better and to rededicate ourselves, as university leaders, as individuals, and as a community, to our core mission of teaching and research,” Armstrong said in a statement.