Three Columbia deans permanently removed over disparaging texts containing ‘antisemitic tropes’
Three Columbia University deans have been “permanently removed” from their posts for sharing “very troubling” texts that “disturbingly touched on ancient antisemitic tropes,” school officials said Monday.
The three administrators — Susan Chang-Kim, Matthew Patashnick and Cristen Kromm — have been on leave since last month since it emerged they’d been involved in the disparaging text exchange that unfolded during a panel discussion about antisemitism on campus.
“This incident revealed behavior and sentiments that were not only unprofessional, but also, disturbingly touched on ancient antisemitic tropes,” Columbia president Minouche Shafik said in a statement.
“Whether intended as such or not, these sentiments are unacceptable and deeply upsetting, conveying a lack of seriousness about the concerns and the experiences of members of our Jewish community that is antithetical to our university’s values and the standards we must uphold in our community.”
Provost Angela Olinto said that “the three staff members involved have been permanently removed from their positions at Columbia College and remain on leave at this time.” It was not immediately clear what their current status was on staff.
Josef Sorett, another dean who was also involved in the text exchange, will remain in his post but will publicly apologize for his role in the ordeal, Shafik added.
The developments come weeks after images of the group chat emerged publicly after being captured by an alumnus sitting in the crowd during the May 31 panel about Jewish life on campus.
The group had exchanged the messages — including one featuring a vomiting face emoji — as speakers discussed the impact that rising antisemitism stoked by Israel’s war against Hamas has had on the Ivy League’s Jewish students and faculty.
In some of the texts, the administrators had accused Jewish students of asserting “privilege” — and mocked them for needing a place to “huddle” to avoid antisemitism and harassment on campus.
“Laying the case to expand physical space! They will have their own dorm soon,” said Patashnick, associate dean for student and family support, in one text, prompting Chang-Kim, vice dean and chief administrative officer of Columbia College, to respond: “Comes from such a place of privilege.”
In another exchange, Kromm, the dean of undergraduate student life, had used the vomiting emoji in reference to an op-ed in the student-led Columbia Spectator — titled “Sounding the alarm” — that was written by the school’s campus rabbi, Yonah Hain.
At one point, Chang-Kim wrote “I’m going to throw up” when Orly Mishan, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, expressed fear about her daughter, a student, “hiding in plain sight” while student protesters embraced Hamas after its Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
The messages, which were first reported on by the Washington Free Beacon, were released in full by the House Education Committee last month.
The developments come after the Ivy League’s Morningside Heights campus became a hotbed of anti-Israel protest violence in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks.
Hundreds of protesters erected tents on the $90,000-per-year school’s campus — sparking violent clashes with cops who were called in to disperse the unruly crowds.
