Faculty Committee Largely Clears Scholars Crisis At Columbia (tries to hide report, anti-semitic?)

NY Sun ^ | 3/31/05 | JACOB GERSHMAN

[Cableguy]

Columbia University, after a months-long investigation, has determined that only a small fraction of complaints from Jewish students against anti-Israel professors constituted intimidation.

The faculty committee appointed by Columbia's president, Lee Bollinger, to investigate a series of student allegations against professors in the Middle Eastern studies department issued a report yesterday largely clearing the accused scholars of blame. At the same time, committee members described a polarized classroom environment in which pro-Israel students disturbed lectures and seminars with inappropriate interruptions.

Columbia's top administrators released statements applauding the report and saying that within the next two weeks they would announce specific actions based on the committee's recommendations, such as improved grievance procedures. The committee made no recommendations regarding disciplinary action.

Mr. Bollinger, in a letter to the Columbia community set for release today, said: "The neglect over time of our grievance procedures has had many unfortunate consequences, and one is the resulting burden on students of complaints unheard. An institutional failure to provide means of addressing such concerns, as well as those of members of the faculty, has had a cascading effect. I deeply regret these problems persisted and were not remedied earlier."

In an effort to manage favorable coverage of its investigation into the complaints, the university disclosed a summary of the committee's report only to the Columbia Spectator, the campus newspaper, and the New York Times. Those newspapers, sources indicated to The New York Sun last night, made an agreement with the central administration that they would not speak to the students who made the complaints against the professors.

[NeilGus]

Reason 2,542,127 why not to send your children to an Ivy League school.

[FormerACLUmember]

And in other news, the National Socialist Party has cleared Hitler, Himmler, and Goering of any wrongdoing.

Did anyone expect liberals to be honest?

[Paleo Conservative]

Ping!

[taxesareforever]

And it was determined that Columbia University employs a politically diverse cross section of educators.

[pabianice]

Dear Dr. Bollinger:

[odoso]

"The faculty committee appointed by Columbia's president, Lee Bollinger"

There's nothing like self investigation for fair and impartial results.

[Sthitch]

Those newspapers, sources indicated to The New York Sun last night, made an agreement with the central administration that they would not speak to the students who made the complaints against the professors

This is incredible. This further shows that the Old Gray Lady is senile, if they believed half of the garbage that they spew concerning journalistic integrity, they would have never agreed to this.

[blanknoone]

From Powerlineblog.com

And it made no mention of an article that an Iranian professor at Columbia, Hamid Dabashi, wrote for an Egyptian newspaper, Al-Ahram, last fall in which he observed that Israelis suffer from "a vulgarity of character that is bone-deep and structural to the skeletal vertebrae of its culture." Had the panel mentioned this statement, it would have had to reconcile it with its finding that there is no evidence of anti-semitic statements by Columbia faculty members.

So once they ignored all the anti-semetic statements by Columbia Profs, they conclude that there were no anti-semetic statements by Columbia Profs.

[Montfort]

Imagine if the same statement had been made about blacks.

Or about gays.

[rmlew]

I was about to post this!
This is the intro to the NY Sun piece that I am sending to Columbia Students and Alumni. To be blunt, I'm pissed.

"According to a news story in the NY Sun and Jewish Collegiate News (http://www.campusj.com/), both of which received the Columbia Ad Hoc committees report through unofficial channels, the administration sent the report to the New York Times and Columbia Daily Spectator before the students who made the claims could see it.

Even worse, the report itself failed to address most of the charges, yet is being hailed as an exoneration by the university. Of course the fact that 4 out of 5 members of the Ad Hoc committee had significant ties to MEALAC and MEI and/or made previous prejudicial statements. This whole process was a farce with the results being a forgone conclusion.

The complicity of the New York Times (of Walter Duranty infamy) and the "independent" Columbia Daily Spectator in this whitewash is revolting. Neither have any shame."

[dervish]

MSM Corruption Ping!

"In an effort to manage favorable coverage of its investigation into the complaints, the university disclosed a summary of the committee's report only to the Columbia Spectator, the campus newspaper, and the New York Times. Those newspapers, sources indicated to The New York Sun last night, made an agreement with the central administration that they would not speak to the students who made the complaints against the professors."

Unbelievable considering the origin of the complaints were by students and about students.

This is not over. The University had there shot to come clean.

[monkeyshine]

Those newspapers, sources indicated to The New York Sun last night, made an agreement with the central administration that they would not speak to the students who made the complaints against the professors.

Huh? So now they admit they have no integrity.

[Steve_Seattle]

"And in other news, the National Socialist Party has cleared Hitler, Himmler, and Goering of any wrongdoing."

Touche.

[rmlew]

Here is a partial response from mebers of Columbians for Academic Freedom

Committee Releases Whitewash Report
Last night, The University attempted to control the media's reaction to the findings of the Ad-Hoc Committee by brokering a deal of exclusivity with the New York Times regarding the report. In return for the right to see the report before anyone else, the New York Times agreed not to seek comment from students. The article was released before any students were even permitted to read the original report. The report was defined in the public consciousness by the university without any thought about its students.

he university's behavior in releasing the report is indicative of the committee's guiding philosophy which apprently places a higher value on Columbia's image than its students. The report itself is a 20-page whitewash of student claims ignoring over 60 complaints and focusing on three that were already widely publcized in the media. Moreover, the committee, at least according to the Times, investigated and found no charges of anti-Semitism. That's good news but no claim of anti-Semitism was ever filed. That charge has only existed in the media and, accordingly, that is who this report addresses -- the media not the students. This underscores the fact that the University reacted only due to outside pressure and not in an earnest desire to hear students' grievances. As such, the committee only expressed regret about the failure of previous grevious procedures with respect to the fact that their failure allowed "outside groups" to intervene.

CAF is not an outside group but it will continue to make its voice heard both in and out of the Columbia community until the administration takes these claims seriously and conducts a legitimate investigation whose purpose is to serve the students and faculty of Columbia, not to protect its public image.
More to come.

[international american]

Let us know how we can hold their testicles to the fire.
I'm thinking as well.

[rmlew]

In their press release, the American Jewish Committee ignores the content of the report, the make-up of the commission, and the original charges. Either they fell for the Columbia/NYTimes whitewash, or the AJC cares more for protecting leftists than for Jews, Zionism, or academic freedom.

The leaders of Columbians for Academic Freedom and the David Project may have wanted to keep this non-ideological, but it is. They foolishly praised Bollinger's speech to the NYC Bar Association, without paying attention to his open dismissal of balance or intellectual diversity. The Left is pro-Arab and sees Israel as illegitimate. I fear that the betrayal by the Kapos of the liberal Jewish establishment will be a rude surprise.

Columbia cannot fix itself and the liberal Jews need our help whether they want it or not.

[blanknoone]

Or about Jews...made by anyone other than Arabs (or in this case, presumably a Persian)

[dervish]

From the NY Times article:

But the report, obtained by The New York Times and scheduled for release today, said it had found "no evidence of any statements made by the faculty that could reasonably be construed as anti-Semitic."

It did, however, describe a broader environment of incivility on campus, with pro-Israel students disrupting lectures on Middle Eastern studies and some faculty members feeling that they were being spied on.

'snip'

Some of the report's harshest criticism was directed at Columbia itself, for not having clear processes that would have allowed earlier action on faculty and student complaints.

"As a result of these failures," the report said, "outside advocacy groups devoted to purposes tangential to those of the university were able to intervene to take up complaints expressed by some students."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/31/education/31columbia.html

Ah 'outside agitators' that explains it.

[Stultis]

In an effort to manage favorable coverage of its investigation into the complaints, the university disclosed a summary of the committee's report only to the Columbia Spectator, the campus newspaper, and the New York Times. Those newspapers, sources indicated to The New York Sun last night, made an agreement with the central administration that they would not speak to the students who made the complaints against the professors.

Sounds like the deal Eason Jordan had with Saddam.