The Situation at Columbia XXXIII

The fall semester is now under way at Columbia, and in many ways things are normal: enrollments are as usual or higher, foreign students have mostly gotten visas and are on campus. There are some new things though which are very different.

The temporary card tables and tents housing the security at the gates have been replaced by permanent guard houses. The lockdown is no longer temporary but permanent. People have started referring to the main gate at 116th and Broadway as “Checkpoint Charlie”. Throughout much of the day people are lined up waiting to show their papers (a QR code). There’s additional security at most of the building entrances.

Once you get on campus, the place is as peaceful and beautiful as always. The vibe is not East Berlin but Vichy-on-Hudson. Lots of security people around. The Columbia administration had the flags lowered to honor Charlie Kirk. The Barnard president has a piece in the New York Times arguing that colleges need to host more speakers like Charlie Kirk.

The large video screens on campus intended for announcements often urge one to “Report a Concern” in order to “Help Prevent Discrimination and Harassment”. The screen has a large QR code which takes you to a page where you can report students for “behavioral misconduct”, specifically for “violations stemming from demonstrations and protests”. You can also report anyone for “Discrimination and Discriminatory Harassment”. These reports go to the “Office of Institutional Equity” which opens investigations. What I’ve heard from people this has happened to is: you don’t get told who reported you, have to hire a lawyer and will be under investigation for months, unable to tell anyone what is going on.

We were also recently told that to get hired at Columbia in the past you needed to report if you had been investigated and sanctioned, now you need to report if you’ve ever been investigated, even if the investigation determined you did nothing wrong.

Since no one knows what the OIE is doing and no one knows what might cause someone to report that you’re an “antisemite”, conversations about many topics now only happen behind closed doors with people you trust, or on encrypted messaging channels. Instructors and students in some areas no longer know what it is safe to say so are keeping quiet. Courses are being cancelled (for example Rashid Khalidi’s) and syllabi have been rewritten to avoid problematic topics.

The Trump administration remains devoted to the project of deporting Columbia students like Mahmoud Khalil, and the university appears to have a policy of not in any way helping him by publicly objecting to such deportations.

Meanwhile, in Gaza, large numbers of innocent civilians are being killed daily. The population of Gaza City is being driven from their homes, which are then flattened to make sure they can’t ever come back. If they survive the trip, they’ll be concentrated in camps and face an unclear future (one suggestion is that they’ll be offered the opportunity to “voluntarily” leave Gaza and never come back).

We’re told the reason for the massive security apparatus and reporting system is to “keep us safe”, but the only thing it appears to be designed to keep us safe from is from hearing any criticism on campus of the ongoing ethnic cleansing and genocide. So far it’s working.

Update: The Columbia Spectator has an article about the Rosenbury op-ed, which was initially headlined “Charlie Kirk Challenged College Students. We Need More Like Him.” Philosophy professor Taylor Carman comments:

On a more conciliatory note, I agree with President Rosenbury’s warning that ‘higher education is under attack from within.’

I probably disagree with her, however, about where that attack is coming from.

Update: The AAUP has released a report On Title VI, Discrimination, and Academic Freedom. It ends with seven recommendations for what universities should be doing and should not be doing. By my count, the Columbia trustees and administration are violating all seven of the recommendations.

Update: If you are a local resident who needs to go through the campus to get to your home, Columbia has a process to get you a QR code: you hire a lawyer, who sends a letter to the Columbia general counsel threatening a lawsuit.