This week, Columbia University settled a lawsuit filed by a Jewish student who claimed the school failed to protect them. But it’s time for the school to go further and clearly define the line between activism and discrimination.
The agreement, which was reached on Tuesday, requires the school to offer “walking escorts” for students who feel uncomfortable on campus and to appoint a Safety Liaison.
The university also agreed to make “accommodations” for those who were unable to finish spring semester exams due to the protests over the Hamas-Israel conflict.
In the lawsuit, filed in April, the anonymous student said they felt “harassed and intimidated” by pro-Palestine demonstrators on campus, and that their education was derailed by chaotic protests.
The suit also accuses pro-Palestine activists at Columbia of inciting violence against Jewish students.
It’s harrowing that, in 2024 in Manhattan, a Jewish student would feel so unsafe that they feel they need to be escorted on their own campus.
How is it possible that this is happening at one of America’s most prestigious universities? And is a safety liaison enough to correct the course?
I don’t think so.
Columbia needs to start educating students about what is and isn’t free speech.
The school should go beef up their orientation and reaffirm their commitment to free speech, so that the campus can weather conflicts without devolving into chaos and hatred.
As Jay Edelson, the student’s lawyer, said in a statement this week: “This settlement sets the bar for how Columbia must protect its students. The next step for the Columbia community is just as important: We’re looking forward to a return to a real debate on campus.”
College is supposed to be a time to exchange ideas and discuss even the most contentious topics.
But Columbia students know more about how to encamp than to debate.
The school already has a days-long orientation for new students (one that I recently had to suffer as a new part-time student) that includes instructions on how not to offend classmates with inartful jokes and how to avoid misgendering your peers.
Why not add a segment on how to engage in protest without harassing your fellow students?
They might have high SAT scores, but, after students set up an encampment and violently took over campus buildings last semester, it’s clear that many Columbia students would fail a test on free speech.
A new orientation should include a how-to list for campus activism.
Do: march, chant, make posters, circle petitions — and even offend your peers while you’re at it.
Don’t: threaten others, smash windows, take over sections of campus, pitch tents or make the school so hostile that your classmates need to finish the semester remotely.
The First Amendment — and its limits — are well defined by the law.
Surely Columbia has enough legal scholars around to craft a decent crash course for new students.
It’s about time for schools to clearly define the line between activism and discrimination, and to make clear what the consequences of crossing that line will be.
Columbia flip-flopped in the face of campus protests time and again.
President Minouche Shafik sent in the cops to break up the encampment in the quad in April, only to let a nearly identical encampment pop up almost instantaneously.
Students need to be clearly told what the rules are and what the consequences are for breaking them.
And then schools must consistently follow through on doling them out.
Now is an opportunity to reclaim free speech as a campus ideal — and to reaffirm a viewpoint-neutral commitment to defending all protected speech, regardless of its content.
It’s time for institutional statements to go.
No more taking stances on presidential elections and Black Lives Matter, but not the atrocities of October 7.
It’s also time for speech policing to be viewpoint neutral.
No more disciplining students for using the wrong pronouns but turning a blind eye to flagrant antisemitism.
The settlement is just the start for Columbia, which still has three open Title VI investigations open with the Office for Civil Rights.
Meanwhile, schools like the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard have been slammed with similar lawsuits.
