Progressive Academics Call for Boycott of Columbia for Cracking Down on Anti-Israel Rhetoric
This really cracks me up. All these leftists suddenly claim to care about free speech on campus. Where have they been for the last fifteen years?
Professor Jacobson commented:
From the HuffPost:
At Least 1,400 Academics Call To Boycott Columbia For Free Speech CrackdownA steadily climbing list of academics have committed to boycott Columbia University and Barnard College over the schools’ decisions to punish students and faculty who speak against Israel’s U.S.-backed destruction of Gaza, and collaborate with the Trump administration while federal immigration officials detain their students.As of Thursday evening, more than 1,400 academics signed onto a statement condemning Columbia’s participation in what they called “an authoritarian assault on universities aimed at destroying their role as sites of teaching, research, learning and activism essential to building a free and fair world.”“Universities cannot pretend to hold higher education sacred while repressing students and faculty, undermining free speech and academic freedom, and prohibiting dissent,” the statement read. “Every such act of craven suppression and compliance only further undermines the university and emboldens the reactionary forces intent on destroying it.”The statement comes just days after Columbia leadership announced it will implement multiple alarming policies demanded by the Trump administration so it can receive the $400 million in grants initially withdrawn by the government earlier this month ― something constitutional law scholars warned “creates a dangerous precedent for every recipient of federal financial assistance.”A spokesperson for Columbia declined HuffPost’s request for comment. On Tuesday, interim president Katrina Armstrong defended her decision to implement the Trump administration’s demands, which she said include immediately strengthening “enforcement rules on demonstrations, identification and masking” to help combat antisemitism.“These attacks are fueled by anti-Palestinian racism and enabled by the dangerous weaponization of antisemitism,” the signatories said. “They expose classrooms, dorms, labs and other common spaces to the surveillance predation of a federal government that has declared war on higher education.”
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