Elite Universities Still Plagued By Pesky Jewish Students Who Just Won’t Shut-Up
[guest post by Dana]
Third Ivy League university president bites the dust:
Columbia University president Minouche Shafik resigned on Wednesday following months of criticism from students, donors and members of Congress over how she handled pro-Palestinian protests on campus, she announced in a letter addressed “to the Columbia community.”
…Elite colleges have struggled to balance the right to protest with student safety — none more so than Columbia, which became the epicenter of the student protest movement.
From Shafik:
“I have had the honor and privilege to lead this incredible institution, and I believe that — working together — we have made progress in a number of important areas,” she said on Wednesday.
“However, it has also been a period of turmoil where it has been difficult to overcome divergent views across our community. This period has taken a considerable toll on my family, as it has for others in our community.” Shafik said her departure from the role “would best enable Columbia to traverse the challenges ahead.”
Really?? Is the challenge to “overcome divergent views”? I would think the challenge is to listen to divergent views and try to find common ground. If that is not possible, then one must recognize and accept that a fellow student has the right to their own beliefs and views. Maybe work thoughtfully to persuade them to understand your own view or leave it alone. However, none of this involves screaming, harassing, threatening, getting physical, or preventing students who don’t share your views from accessing classes and moving thorough the campus, freely and without risk.
Ironically, a federal judge took another prominent university to task for not ensuring the safety of Jewish students and their access to classes:
A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction this week against UCLA, saying the prestigious school cannot allow Jewish students to be barred from accessing classes and campus.
The ruling Tuesday is the first of its kind against a university pertaining to anti-Israel protests that roiled American college campuses this year.
Three Jewish students had filed a complaint against the regents of UCLA in June saying that the university in Los Angeles devolved into a “hotbed of antisemitism” in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war and that the school failed to ensure the safety of Jewish students and full access to campus facilities.
From U.S. District Judge Mark C. Scarsi:
“Jewish students were excluded from portions of the UCLA campus because they refused to denounce their faith. This fact is so unimaginable and so abhorrent to our constitutional guarantee of religious freedom,” he wrote…“If any part of UCLA’s ordinarily available programs, activities, and campus areas become unavailable to certain Jewish students, UCLA must stop providing those ordinarily available programs, activities, and campus areas to any students,” Scarsi wrote.
Demonstrating UCLA’s deep concern for the Jewish plaintiffs (and by extension, other Jewish students not a part of this lawsuit), the school responded to the temporary injunction:
A spokesperson for UCLA criticized the ruling to the Los Angeles Times, saying it would “improperly hamstring our ability to respond to events on the ground.” They added that the school is “considering all options moving forward”; the university had previously indicated it could appeal. UCLA’s fall semester for law students begins this month.
I’m reading this as: UCLA believes that it really is *that* difficult to ensure a specific group of students be able to attend class and move around the campus freely, without restraint or harm. And if that’s the case, it’s not the Jewish students that are the problem…
–Dana
Hello.
Dana (fc34c9) — 8/15/2024 @ 8:39 amThe remedy “if protestors deny access to campus facilities to Jewish students, the University must close the facilities to everyone” seems very strange to me, and I don’t understand why they didn’t get an injunction ordering the University to clear protestors who are denying access instead of an injunction ordering the University to deny access to everyone if protestors deny access to anyone.
aphrael (17926d) — 8/15/2024 @ 8:48 amSince I am an academic, I can speak to the craziness on campus. For good or for ill, anything “non-Western” (but not Japanese or Chinese) is considered afflicted upon and thus deserving of special privilege.
I mean, what would universities do if Christians were protesting against Muslims on campus because of how they treat women, gays, and transgendered folk?
Even with the pro-progressive tropes I just mentioned (which has a factual basis), the protestors would be cleared out, doxed, and jailed within a day.
As my late father wisely put it: the only fair or just law or rule is one you do not mind in the hands of your worst enemy.
Simon Jester (c8876d) — 8/15/2024 @ 11:10 amU.S. District Judge Mark C. Scarsi
Such persistence.
Hopefully the Harris Administration is just as tenacious pushing through their judicial picks.
BuDuh (7c46a5) — 8/15/2024 @ 11:20 am@4 Excellent point. An administration run by Harris, who avoided picking Shapiro to please the Death To America wing of her party, will bequeath us judges who will overrule Scarsi.
lloyd (241faf) — 8/15/2024 @ 12:11 pmI have a feeling there is a linkage between Judge Scarsi’s ruling and Ms. Shafik’s resignation. As I understand the timeline, the judge issued his ruling with the denunciation of UCLA yesterday morning. News of Ms. Shafik’s resignation broke late yesterday, even by West Coast standards. I looks like the NYT had the story at around 8:00 pm last night, Eastern Time.
So my conjecture is that Judge Scarsi issued his ruling yesterday morning, it received a great deal of publicity, and then the Columbia Trustees met with Ms. Shafik and suggested that Columbia would also likely be forced to settle the lawsuits filed against them and that the only move that would placate pro-Hamas students and faculty and at the same time the Jewish and Zionist students and their allies would be for Ms. Shaftik to fall on her sword.
I would also be willing to bet that Columbia made it well worth her while, probably with a faculty appointment in the Economics Department where she has no teaching responsibility, no real research obligations, and can work on writing her apologia for her mishandling of the Spring 2024 events, all while continuing to receive the same pay she received as president. Everyone wins in this scenario except for the dumb Columbia donors.
JVW (ebf07a) — 8/15/2024 @ 1:37 pm“it has been difficult to overcome divergent views across our community”
May I suggest Red Guards and struggle sessions?
Next time, get someone to proofread your statement, Minouche.
norcal (a4d271) — 8/15/2024 @ 2:20 pmI agree with aphrael @2. Scarsi gave the harassers what they wanted. Shut down the campus.
But it is what I would expect from a Two Inch appointee. If Donnie can’t have a cookie, nobody will have a cookie.
nk (882678) — 8/15/2024 @ 3:20 pm@2
I’m guessing the Judge went this route due to forcasting that had he ruled with “an injunction ordering the University to clear protestors who are denying access”, it’d be overturned based on 1st Amendment principles at the 9th Circuit.
whembly (477db6) — 8/15/2024 @ 6:55 pmWhat would happen if a muslim or atheist student protested the 10 commandments being posted in his class room in La. How many of you think the rethugs wouldn’t put back protestant prayer in school if they could. Look what desatan in fla. is doing.
asset (8193e4) — 8/15/2024 @ 11:49 pmHow many of you think the rethugs wouldn’t put back protestant prayer in school if they could. Look what desatan in fla. is doing.
Is it distracting kids from learning all 88 different gender identities, asset? Is it cutting into the time that otherwise would be spent teaching black kids that the system is stacked against them and they have no hope of overcoming pervasive racism, or telling white kids that no matter how noble their intent they are still the cogs in a deeply racist society? Because we know this is the sort of nonsense that goes on when Democrats control the schools.
JVW (03ae6d) — 8/16/2024 @ 8:39 amThe difference is that Democrats’ moral and religious instruction don’t involve God. They set
Kevin M (a9545f) — 8/16/2024 @ 9:23 amManHumanity as their God and Presentism as their defining ethos.What would happen if a muslim or atheist student protested the 10 commandments being posted in his class room in La.
What would happen if a muslim or christian student protested normalization of gay and trans behavior in his class room in L.A.?
Kevin M (a9545f) — 8/16/2024 @ 9:25 amSuch persistence.
Hopefully the Harris Administration is just as tenacious pushing through their judicial picks.
The nomination was returned due to inaction during the session. It’s routine, especially as the Democrats were running out the clock on all nominees. Eventually the GOP shortened the allowed delay.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 8/16/2024 @ 9:30 amBut it is what I would expect from a Two Inch appointee. If Donnie can’t have a cookie, nobody will have a cookie.
An nk flowchart for opinion has many branching decisions but the end result is always the same — Orange Man Bad.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 8/16/2024 @ 9:31 am