At Columbia: Grievances, Lawsuits, Resignations and a New Trump Administration Investigation

Columbia remains a dumpster fire of epic proportions with “anti-Zionist” activists and professors continuing to do their best to support Hamas with the school itself as a casualty.

First up, professor Katherine Franke resigned her position at the school a couple weeks ago after an independent investigation into her behavior had violated school policies when she became involved in a discussion about Israeli students who sprayed fart spray on pro-Palestinian protesters and then later revealed the name of one of the students and retweeted negative comments about him. When she quit she called Columbia a “toxic and hostile environment.” Franke has since filed a grievance demanding an investigation of the office Office of Institutional Equity which investigated her.

In her grievance, Franke—a former Columbia professor of 25 years—alleged that the University administration “had engaged in prohibited racial stereotyping” related to the investigation and asked the senate to “condemn” that practice.

“In my view, the policies and practices of the Office of Institutional Equity demonstrate a pattern and practice of anti-Palestinian racism toward Columbia affiliates, a form of national origin discrimination,” Franke wrote.

In her grievance supplement, Franke said that she had faced “harassment” on campus that made her fear for her safety, including verbal altercations and “threatening” correspondence. Franke also stated that she signed her retirement agreement under “the duress of a hostile work environment.”

 As I understand the sequence of events, Franke was originally dropped by her lawyers in October. She filed a complaint against them but she also filed a grievance in November against Columbia. She demanded the school’s investigation be carried out by an outside investigator and they agreed. The outside investigator, a law firm hired for the job, concluded Franke had violated several school policies. And a few weeks later she resigned but claimed she was really being forced out. Now it sounds like she’s trying to get her job back.

Today, another Columbia professor resigned but this one did so for very different reasons. 

Columbia Business School professor Avi Friedman has resigned, citing the university’s decision to appoint a Hamas-praising professor, Joseph Massad, to teach a course on Zionism, according to a letter obtained by the Washington Free Beacon…

Friedman’s resignation marks the second time a Columbia professor has resigned over Massad and his course on Zionism. Public affairs professor Lawrence Rosenblatt announced his departure from Columbia in December, arguing that having Massad teach a course on Zionism was “akin to having a white nationalist teach about the US Civil Rights movement and the struggle for Black equality.”

Also today there are dueling lawsuits over the climate on campus. Three suspended students have filed a lawsuit against the school.

Three students from Columbia University filed a lawsuit on Monday morning against the school administration for their suspensions related to their pro-Palestine activism on campus…

Following a months-long convoluted, and often intimidating, disciplinary process, the university suspended two of the students, Aidan Parisi and Brandon Murphy, for one year, and the third student, Catherine Curran-Groome, for two years. Prior to the suspensions, all three had been scheduled to graduate this spring…

it was an event held before the launch of the Gaza solidarity encampments that led to the first interim suspension for Curran-Groome and Parisi. Curran-Groome had become co-president of the Palestine Working Group, an official student organization. In March, she helped organize an event, Resistance 101, featuring speakers from groups focused on Palestinian human rights who spoke about the history of different strategies of confronting occupation and colonialism, including armed resistance.

I wrote about the Resistance 101 event here. The description in this article doesn’t begin to do it justice. They invited a pro-Hamas husband and wife team who talked about their friends in several known terror groups.

The event called “Resistance 101” was led by prominent Palestinian activist Khaled Barakat, who appeared by video to discuss the Gaza conflict that erupted in the aftermath of Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct. 7…

During the meeting, Barakat — who has been accused of being a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine — talked about speaking with his “friends and brothers in Hamas, Islamic Jihad… the PFLP… especially after Oct.7,” and how excited they are when they see student groups in America protesting on their behalf.

The whole thing was held on Zoom and recorded so there’s no doubt about what was being said.

If there was any doubt…

“When I speak to my friends and brothers in Hamas Islamic Jihad you know the PFLP in Gaza these days, especially after October 7th, we talk about different things that has nothing to do with our movement… when they see students organizing outside… pic.twitter.com/x1MwrImkma

— Stu (@thestustustudio) March 26, 2024

The pitch at Resistance 101 was that everyone should proudly support Hamas.

I feel like I am burying the lead here but…

“The fact is that Hamas is a mass Palestinian movement that is in a leadership role in the liberation struggle right now and there is nothing wrong with being a member of Hamas, being a leader of Hamas, being a fighter, and Hamas,… pic.twitter.com/IxdKpaQmea

— Stu (@thestustustudio) March 26, 2024

So, yes, Columbia decided that crossed a line between supporting Palestinians (or a ceasefire or whatever) and open support for terrorism. Four students were suspended including Aidan Parisi, Brandon Murphy and Catherine Curran-Groome. They then violated that suspension by returning to campus to set up a tent camp. Now they are claiming that all of this was just an attempt to stop pro-Palestinian activism.

Finally, the trump administration also weighed in today by launching a new investigation of anti-Semitism at five schools including Columbia.

The Trump administration is opening new investigations into allegations of antisemitism at five U.S. universities including Columbia and the University of California, Berkeley, the Education Department announced Monday.

It’s part of President Donald Trump’s promise to take a tougher stance against campus antisemitism and deal out harsher penalties than the Biden administration, which settled a flurry of cases with universities in its final weeks. It comes the same day the Justice Department announced a new task force to root out antisemitism on college campuses…

Along with Columbia and Berkeley, the department is now investigating the University of Minnesota, Northwestern University and Portland State University. 

All of these schools are now going to be under additional pressure to show they are taking the problem of granting degrees to Hamas sympathizers seriously. Hopefully that will help them concentrate as we move forward this semester. We’ve already had one classroom disruption and one serious act of vandalism against a school building. Now is the time to stand up to these violent bullies.