Columbia Trustees Fired Over Text Messages – NBC New York

Columbia University announced Monday that it has removed three administrators from their positions and will place them on indefinite leave after discovering that text messages they exchanged during a campus discussion about Jewish life “disturbingly evoked long-standing anti-Semitic tropes.”

In a letter to the Columbia community, university President Minouche Shafik and Dean Angela Olinto said the trustees have been permanently removed from their positions at Columbia College, the university’s undergraduate college. The college’s dean, who had previously apologized for his role in the text messages, will remain in his position.

The university will also launch a “robust” training program on anti-Semitism and anti-discrimination for faculty and staff in the fall, as well as related training for students, Shafik said.

The administrators, whose names the university has not identified, were first placed on leave last month after a conservative media outlet published images of what it said were text messages they exchanged while participating in the May 31 panel discussion titled “Jewish Life on Campus: Past, Present and Future.”

The House Committee on Education and the Workforce released some of those messages last week.

“This incident exposed behavior and sentiments that were not only unprofessional, but also touched on age-old anti-Semitic tropes in troubling ways,” Shafik wrote. “Whether intentional or not, these sentiments are unacceptable and deeply disturbing.”

Shafik said the text messages reflected a “lack of seriousness regarding the concerns and experiences of members of our Jewish community, which is contrary” to the university’s values ​​and standards.

Olinto wrote that the administrators’ conduct was “wrong and contrary to the mission and values ​​of our institution. It reveals, at best, an ignorance of the history of anti-Semitism.”

The Washington Free Beacon news outlet published examples of what it described as some of the text exchanges on June 12 and 21.

Among them was a message suggesting that a panelist might have used recent campus protests as a fundraising opportunity and another that appeared to criticize a campus rabbi’s essay on anti-Semitism.

The panel on anti-Semitism came a month after university leaders called in police to clear pro-Palestinian protesters from an occupied administration building and dismantle a tent encampment that threatened to disrupt graduation ceremonies.

The police action comes amid deep divisions on campus over whether some of the protests against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza were anti-Semitic.

Columbia College Dean Josef Sorett, whose text messages were published by the Free Beacon, will continue to lead the university after apologizing and pledging to work to repair the damage caused by the text exchanges, Olinto said. He and his administration will be expected to “make concrete changes to combat anti-Semitism and discrimination and create a fully inclusive environment,” Olinto wrote.

“While not intended, some of the messages exchanged may evoke anti-Semitic stereotypes,” Sorett said in a letter to the Columbia College community Monday. “Any language that demeans members of our community or divides us from one another is simply unacceptable.”

“I am deeply sorry that this happened in a community I lead – and that I was a part of one of the exchanges – and I am committed to leading the change we need to ensure this never happens again,” Sorett continued. He said that “the loss of trust and pain this incident has caused, particularly to Jewish members of our community, must be fully repaired.”