What to Do About Columbia?

This article first appeared in Times of Israel Blogs. 

-NY Times

Columbia University, like many others, exploded into the American headlines in the months following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack in Israel. But for those of us who follow campus anti-Semitism, it is not so shocking. nor is it new. During the past couple of decades, Columbia has been one of the worst campuses for Jewish students. To be sure, there are many more universities across the nation that have covered themselves in shame for allowing pro-Palestinian rowdies to intimidate Jewish students and disrupt their events with seeming impunity. But if there was any doubt about which university was the worst, Columbia has erased all doubt in the past months, weeks, and even days.

But now comes President Donald Trump into the picture, and as they say in Western movies, there is a new sheriff in town. Instead of the bumbling and uncaring Joe Biden, we have a president who not only stands squarely on the side of Israel but one who cares about the anti-Semitic problem in America, including on our campuses. His Department of Justice under Attorney General Pam Bondi and newly-appointed assistant in charge of the DOJ task force on anti-Semitism, Leo Terrell, is taking solid steps to confront the issue of campus anti-Semitism. 

And they are giving special attention to Columbia, which, along with its sister campus, Barnard College, is boiling over again as I write. The administration has announced that $400 million in federal grants to Columbia (a private university)  has been canceled. This is precisely what the doctor ordered, and I hope that the money will not be restored no matter what Columbia promises to do to reform their institution.  Columbia should take action to reform itself to prevent further cuts.

In addition, the Department of Homeland Security has taken a Palestinian student who has been leading the actions at Columbia into custody. His student visa has been canceled by the State Department, and hopefully, he will be sent packing quickly. 

Columbia, if it wants to reform itself, must rid its campus of Hamas supporters-and that is exactly what they are. That means that cosmetic and temporary suspensions of student groups like Students for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace, and Columbia University Apartheid Divest are not enough. They must be permanently banned from campus. Offending students who use the campus to support Hamas (a US-designated terrorist organization)  should be expelled. Those who intimidate and harass Jewish students, or disrupt their events, must also be expelled. If they are foreign students on student visas, they must be expelled and the government must follow up with quick deportation once they are no longer on student visa status. In addition, radical professors like Rashid Khalidi and Joseph Massad, who, in my opinion, have contributed to the anti-Semitic atmosphere at Columbia, should have no place at Columbia or any other university.

But we should not delude ourselves into thinking that all of these offending students (or professors) are foreigners. Many, if not most, are American citizens. In other cases, the university must apply strict rules of conduct, expel offending students who break the law, and refer their crimes to law enforcement for prosecution.

In addition, we must remember that what will really get the attention of the universities is to cut off their money. Even private universities are awash in federal grants, gifts from questionable countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and China, as well as large donations from wealthy donors. It is time for this to dry up. 

That leads to my final point: What if, say, for example, all this happens to Columbia, a prestigious Ivy League school? What if the university actually went bankrupt and was forced to close its doors forever? I'm not suggesting that's going to happen, but if it did, would this be a tragedy for higher education in our country? Surely, the academics would cry and moan, but I would not.

Because of what is going on at Columbia and so many other universities is not higher education. It is higher indoctrination, and parents don't need to be paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to send their kids to be indoctrinated and taught that America Israel, and the West are evil entities. More important, however, is the fact that universities are the breeding grounds for anti-Semitism, a virulent form not seen since Hitlerian Germany. Up to now, universities have allowed it to grow and fester. They have given nothing but lip service and cosmetic suspensions in response to the issue. Not just Columbia, but too many others to list here. 

So what if the most problematic schools collapse? It will send a message to all of academia that enough is enough. Yes, there is such a thing as free speech, but the federal government is not obligated to give you money. Donors can decide to give their money to other entities. Students can choose other schools. Qualified professors, especially those in the hard sciences, can find other places to teach. 

The fact is that we won't miss universities like Columbia if they go broke and close their doors forever. The fact is that many Americans are already questioning the value of a college degree, especially if it is in certain social sciences like LGBTQ studies, gay and gender studies, and other ridiculous majors. Many people are taking a second look at trade schools that can prepare young people for a profitable profession. Universities in the South, with a few exceptions, have far fewer problems than the Ivy League schools, the University of California, Rutgers, the University of Michigan, and many others. 

Finally, I don't want my ideas to be compared to the change that Hitler brought to German universities immediately upon coming to power. In that case, Jewish students and professors were removed from the universities simply because they were Jews, not because they were causing problems. In that case, only one political thought was permitted in the universities-that of the Nazi party and its agenda. I am not calling for that. The change I am talking about is in response to unruly and violent behavior and harassment of Jewish students. Keep in mind that Jewish students in Germany were not engaged in disruptive and violent behavior. Jewish professors were not engaged in subversive activity or teaching subversion in and/or out of the classroom. So to compare what I am saying to Nazi Germany would not hold water. I am not calling for the removal of all students or professors who belong to a particular, ethnic or religious class. Nor am I calling for the new administration to simply shut down Columbia and other schools by executive order. 

This is not a matter of what people believe. It is not a matter of whether you support Israel or the Palestinians. You don't get to break things, disrupt events, harass Jewish students, or shut down the university. As to the latter, for decades we have heard radical students yelling, "Shut it down!" They may get their wish but not in the way they envisioned. They want universities that don't go along with their radical agendas to be shut down. There are other ways to shut down universities that allow their hateful and violent behavior. Not by governmental fiat. You simply don't have to give them the money and let the free market system work its magic. That's the only way universities are going to get the message that reform is needed and demanded.