Free Republic

On Friday, May 31, alumni descended on Columbia University's Manhattan campus to celebrate their class reunions. In addition to eating and drinking, the festivities included several panel discussions featuring professors and administrators...In the audience, according to two attendees, were several top members of the Columbia administration. Given the sensitivity of the subject—the eruption of anti-Semitism on campus in the wake of Hamas's Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel put a national spotlight on the school, and Columbia recently settled a lawsuit with a Jewish student who accused the school of fostering an unsafe learning environment—the administrators' presence made sense.The administrators...

Nearly two weeks ago, Columbia University president Minouche Shafik assured members of Congress that an anti-Semitic professor had been terminated. That professor, Mohamed Abdou, was "grading his students' papers" before the end of the semester and would "never teach at Columbia again," Shafik said. Instead, Abdou—a self-described "Muslim anarchist" who teaches a class on "Decolonial-Queerness & Abolition"—has been a regular presence in the unsanctioned "Gaza Solidarity" tent encampment that has plagued Columbia since student protesters constructed it on the day of Shafik's testimony. The Washington Free Beacon has spotted him daily—talking to student leaders, lounging in the sun, and participating...

Columbia University has refused to comment on the growing furor over a tenured professor who called Hamas’ terror attacks against Israel “awesome” — as a petition calling for his ouster gained more than 45,000 signatures. Professor of politics and history Joseph Massad was accused of “condoning and supporting terrorism” in a Change.org petition created by 23-year-old student Maya Platek. The teacher called Hamas’ attacks on Israel a “stunning victory” in an article he published on The Electronic Intifada a day after the conflict ignited. “Regardless of one’s stance on the conflict, supporting and praising one of the worst acts of...