Straws in the Wind - Part 194

The Classroom Experience at Columbia - Report #4: Task Force on Antisemitism

Introduction: Academic freedom must be guaranteed to everyone at Columbia, including members of protected classes (i.e., groups protected under antidiscrimination law). In listening sessions, the antisemitism task force heard of disturbing incidents in which the academic freedom of Jewish and Israeli Columbia students was not protected in the University’s classrooms. We alluded to these incidents in our second report, published in August 2024 as part of our discussion of the listening sessions, and we promised to consider them more fully in a subsequent report. That is our purpose here.

We begin with our central point: We urge the University to protect freedom of expression to the maximum extent possible while also complying with antidiscrimination laws. Censorship has no place at Columbia. Neither does discrimination. We will describe a range of policies that can protect free expression while averting discrimination. In balancing these goals, we would err in the direction of protecting free expression, even when it makes members of our community uncomfortable. Importantly, however the University decides to strike this balance, it must do so consistently for all protected classes...

Source: https://www.columbia.edu/content/report-4-task-force-antisemitism.

Full Report #4 is at:

https://ia600402.us.archive.org/9/items/2-final-hjaa-report.-the-soil-beneath-the-encampments/Columbia%20University%20Task%20Force%20on%20Antisemitism%20Report%204%20Dec%202025.pdf.

Note: Report #4 refers to evidence collected for Report #2 which is at:

https://ia600402.us.archive.org/9/items/2-final-hjaa-report.-the-soil-beneath-the-encampments/Columbia%20Report-2-Task-Force-on-Antisemitism.pdf.