You know how I love it when a reader saves me the trouble of writing a post by beating me to it. That’s what Steve-O-in NJ did with this Comment of the Day.

The letter sent to the Columbia University community by Minouche Shafik the school’s embattled, feckless, over-her-head president, has so much wrong with it that I would have been forced to do a fisking, and I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep, putting it mildly. Here’s Steve-O’s excellent performance of that task, in his Comment of the Day to the post, “Ethics Dunce: Emerson College President Jay Bernhardt”…

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This is the president of Columbia’s letter to her school after the NYPD finally took action:

Dear members of the Columbia community,

Early Tuesday morning, tensions on our campus rose to new heights when a small group of protestors broke into Hamilton Hall, barricaded themselves inside, and occupied it throughout the day. This drastic escalation of many months of protest activity pushed the University to the brink, creating a disruptive environment for everyone and raising safety risks to an intolerable level.

I know I speak for many members of our community in saying that this turn of events has filled me with deep sadness. I am sorry we reached this point. Over the last few months, we have been patient in tolerating unauthorized demonstrations, including the encampment. Our academic leaders spent eight days engaging over long hours in serious dialogue in good faith with protest representatives. I thank them for their tireless effort. The University offered to consider new proposals on divestment and shareholder activism, to review access to our dual degree programs and global centers, to reaffirm our commitment to free speech, and to launch educational and health programs in Gaza and the West Bank. Some other universities have achieved agreement on similar proposals. Our efforts to find a solution went into Tuesday evening, but regrettably, we were unable to come to resolution.

Because my first responsibility is safety, with the support of the University’s Trustees, I made the decision to ask the New York City Police Department to intervene to end the occupation of Hamilton Hall and dismantle the main encampment along with a new, smaller encampment. These actions were completed Tuesday night, and I thank the NYPD for their incredible professionalism and support.  

I also want to thank all of the many people, including faculty, staff, and especially our public safety officers and facilities workers, for their tireless efforts on behalf of Columbia and to support our students through this difficult period.

Columbia has a long and proud tradition of protest and activism on many important issues such as the Vietnam War, civil rights, and the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa. Today’s protesters are also fighting for an important cause, for the rights of Palestinians and against the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza. They have many supporters in our community and have a right to express their views and engage in peaceful protest.

But students and outside activists breaking Hamilton Hall doors, mistreating our Public Safety officers and maintenance staff, and damaging property are acts of destruction, not political speech. Many students have also felt uncomfortable and unwelcome because of the disruption and antisemitic comments made by some individuals, especially in the protests that have persistently mobilized outside our gates.

It is going to take time to heal, but I know we can do that together. I hope that we can use the weeks ahead to restore calm, allow students to complete their academic work, and honor their achievements at Commencement. We also must continue with urgency our ongoing dialogue on the important issues that have been raised in recent months, especially the balance between free speech and discrimination and the role of a university in contributing to better outcomes in the Middle East. Both are topics where I hope Columbia can lead the way in new thinking that will make us the epicenter, not just of protests, but of solutions to the world’s problems.

Sincerely,

Minouche Shafik

President, Columbia University in the City of New York

Soooooo…what’s missing? 

There’s not a single mention of consequences for these actions. Nowhere does she say that the students who went too far will be dealt with under the appropriate disciplinary procedures (although in keeping with university policy, she won’t publicly get into specific cases) and she leaves the outside activists for the civil authorities to deal with, with the university’s full cooperation. There’s definitely no mention of restitution.

There’s also no mention of the fact that anti-Semitism is as much a form of bigotry and racism as any other form, and, as such, it has no place in a university devoted to being a marketplace of ideas.

There’s no mention of justified anger here, only “sadness.” This isn’t something to get sad about. It’s something to get angry and disgusted with. The university expects better of those chosen to attend this elite institution.

What also seems to have gotten lost in all of this is that Columbia is a university with four undergraduate schools and 16 graduate programs. People don’t just go there to discuss ideas or express anger. They go there to become engineers, teachers, lawyers, doctors, and a bunch of other specialized professionals that it actually requires discipline to become. Its primary purpose is to be an institution of learning, not to be a venue for angry privileged young people trying to ride the latest social justice wave, any more than Palm Springs is a venue for drunk young people to destroy.

This isn’t about healing, except maybe for the people who have been made to suffer as a result of these idiotic actions. It’s shameful that the university even considered any of these people’s proposals. The only response to this kind of action should have been something a la the Riot Act: 

“Our sovereign lord the King chargeth and commandeth all persons, being assembled, immediately to disperse themselves, and peaceably to depart to their habitations, or to their lawful business, upon the pains contained in the act made in the first year of King George, for preventing tumults and riotous assemblies. God save the King.”

It would go something like….“The president of this institution by this announcement instructs all individuals here assembled to immediately to disperse and return to their housing or academic business if associated with the university, or to leave the campus if not.  Failure to do so will result in arrest and appropriate disciplinary, legal, or other proceedings.”

It still doesn’t quite resonate with me why American students, pursuing degrees at an American university, should want to insert themselves into a conflict that does not involve their nation, and definitely does not involve the university or them. It’s not like they are going to change anything and it’s not like it’s really even their business. What’s between Israel and Hamas is between them and them only until it spills over into other nations’ business. What is more, what admirable about a quasi-nation that puts a terrorist group in charge, then follows it into an assault on another nation, targeting civilians and and employing atrocities? There is nothing that is admirable about this, but I also think this is the end result of years of social justice education that warps people into thinking what’s conventionally good is bad and what’s conventionally bad is good.