Is it just me, or is Columbia University starting to find its pro-Palestinian contingent rather annoying?
Surely the most important factor in the school’s sudden interest in campus order is the fact that the Trump administration has come out swinging on the issue of anti-Semitism—threatening to withhold federal funds, challenge accreditation, and deport pro-Hamas visiting students who have made life on campus hellish for Jews and a headache for many others.
But it’s impossible to discount the effect that one’s insufferableness can have on others.
According to the Columbia Spectator, the university sent out a memo condemning the inclusion of “political views within the lab notes for a class session.” The class at hand was Astronomy Lab I. On Tuesday, students in the class were apparently treated to a meandering political lecture in place of the generally more science-related lab notes one expects to find in such a class.
“As we watch genocide unfold in Gaza, it is also important to tell the story of Palestinians outside of being the subjects of a military occupation,” the lab notes read. “Take 15 minutes or so to read through the articles ‘Wonder and the Life of Palestinian Astronomy’ and ‘In Gaza, Scanning the Sky for Stars, Not Drones.’ Remind yourself that our dreams, our wonders, our aspirations…are not any more worthy.”
Really makes you think.
The professor who teaches the class claims he did not see the lab notes before they were sent around. Instead, the lab notes were reportedly the work of “a graduate student serving as a teaching assistant.”
It’s important to walk a mile in others’ moon shoes, of course. And there’s some hardheaded logic in the point of the lesson—that if you can study something, you shouldn’t, because somebody else cannot study that thing. Columbia students were reminded to mind their “privileges” of being able to learn the subject at hand, which is reason enough, apparently, not to the learn the subject at hand. Out of solidarity.
“We regret that this unacceptable breach of policy took place and apologize to the students enrolled in the class,” the university statement explained. “The violation is being addressed through the University’s processes, and we are implementing additional review procedures.”
The other recent incident at Columbia was, of course, far less humorous and far closer to what has been the norm of late. Last week, masked activists burst into a class on Israeli history, disrupted the lesson, and handed out leaflets encouraging the eradication of the state of Israel.
“They just want to frighten my students,” Professor Avi Shilon, who was teaching the class, told the New York Post. “I was very much disappointed with the students who came to the class because if you are learning at Columbia, which is an Ivy League university, you should respect first and foremost the need to learn to study the subject before protesting.
“They act very aggressively … these things like that can happen in the street but not within the university, not within the class.”
Columbia President Karen Armstrong immediately condemned the disruption and promised a swift investigation. The school also posted security guards outside classes that the anti-Zionist lunatics might hit next. Armstrong kept her word—so far, three people have been identified as part of the stunt. Two of the three were enrolled at an affiliated school and have been barred from campus. The third was an active Columbia student who has been suspended pending a full investigation.
“Disruptions to our classrooms and our academic mission and efforts to intimidate or harass our students are not acceptable, are an affront to every member of our university community, and will not be tolerated,” the university said.
As the Jerusalem Post notes, “A group of staff affiliated with the Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine (FSJP) for Columbia University, Barnard College, and Teachers College sent a letter to the Columbia Spectator on Thursday criticizing the protest.” Apparently a bright red line was crossed in everybody’s estimation.
The two stunts mentioned above are, however, more closely related than they seem. No, no one in astronomy class was threatened with violence, as happened to those on the receiving end of the masked intrusion to Shilon’s class. But on the other hand, it’s a reminder of the ubiquity of this nonsense at America’s “elite” colleges. If you’re Jewish, you will be aggressively confronted in some classes, and passive-aggressively confronted in others. It’s exhausting. And even Columbia administrators may get tired of it after a while.
