The Accountability-Free University
20th August 2024
Do Columbia University administrators actually want a governable university where students can learn free of disruption and harassment from their own classmates?
Former university president Minouche Shafik threw in the towel last week rather than return to campus. She presided over a period last spring in which Columbia became ground zero for student radicals. Shafik coddled them for weeks, beseeching them to get off her lawn, please, if it wouldn’t inconvenience them too much, until they stormed a university building.
On Monday, we learned how the university has dealt with the criminals in its midst. The House Committee on Education and the Workforce released information obtained from Columbia indicating how the university has meted out discipline in an array of cases. They range from protesters who participated in the unlawful encampment to those who broke into Hamilton Hall to students who disrupted the school’s alumni weekend in late May, plastering cardboard rockets with the photographs of Columbia trustees and other university leaders.
INTERVIEWER: I see that you have a degree from an Ivy League University.
CANDIDATE: Yes, I do.
INTERVIEWER: Well, I’m sorry to hear that. I’m afraid we’re looking for somebody with an education.