54 Columbia Law Faculty Condemn Administration For Disciplinary Action Against Anti-Israel Student Protesters

National Review, Columbia Law Faculty ‘Deeply Troubled’ by Disciplinary Action against Anti-Israel Protesters:

More than 50 Columbia Law School faculty members in a letter on Sunday castigated the university’s administration over its decision to clear students violating university policy from the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” that sprung up on Wednesday morning.

“As members of the faculty of Columbia Law School, we are deeply troubled by recent events on our campus,” the letter reads. “While we as a faculty disagree about the relevant political issues and express no opinion on the merits of the protest, we are writing to urge respect for basic rule-of-law values that ought to govern our University.”

The Intercept, Columbia Law School Faculty Condemn Administration for Mass Arrests and Suspensions:

The law school faculty letter follows mass dissent in other channels. After an emergency faculty meeting last week, for instance, the Barnard and Columbia chapters of the American Association of University Professors circulated a statement condemning the mass arrests. Organizers say they have more than 1,000 signatories on the petition.

The intensity of the response, one organizer told The Intercept, “reflects the deep anger many faculty feel at what has happened here over the last week.

New York Times, Columbia’s President May Face a Censure Resolution:

The university senate is expected to vote, possibly as early as Wednesday, on a resolution censuring Dr. Shafik, a reaction to her testimony before Congress and the arrests of more than 100 student protesters.

A draft of the resolution, circulated Monday, accused Dr. Shafik of violating “the fundamental requirements of academic freedom,” ignoring faculty governance and staging an “unprecedented assault on student rights.” ...

[A] censure vote, whether it passes or not, reflects the depth of anger among faculty members over the arrests of the student protesters, which faculty members say Dr. Shafik ordered without proper consultation with the university senate’s executive committee.

“I have the sense,” said David E. Pozen, a law professor, “that a very broad swath of the faculty, with very different views on the situation in Gaza and Israel, believes that President Shafik’s recent actions are alarming.” ...

Not all faculty are on board.

Dr. Andrew R. Marks, the chair of the department of physiology at Columbia’s medical school and a member of the university senate’s executive committee, said that antisemitism on campus, not Dr. Shafik’s leadership, was the problem. ...

After the student arrests, more than 50 of the 90 full-time faculty in the law school released a letter on Sunday condemning Dr. Shafik for bringing the police to campus, and for suspending more than 100 student protesters. ...

There was also consternation over Columbia’s decision to disclose to Congress internal information about professors under investigation, the same type of detail that Harvard has resisted releasing to the committee. ...

Katherine Franke, a law professor at Columbia, was also identified as being under investigation, in the letter and during the hearing.

On social media, she demanded an apology from Dr. Shafik for not correcting the record when Ms. Stefanik, a Republican from New York, claimed that she had made an inappropriate comment about Israeli students — a charge that Ms. Franke said Dr. Shafik knew was incorrect. ...

Mr. Pozen, a constitutional law expert, said the action had backfired.

“If calling the cops last Thursday was meant to protect Jewish students, it seems to have had the opposite effect,” he said. “The initial encampment was peaceful while it lasted. The protests that followed its dismantling brought lots of outraged new people to campus and were much more volatile.”

Even Ms. Stefanik, whom Dr. Shafik tried to mollify, has called for her resignation, which would the follow the resignations of the presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Pozen said he does not think the law faculty wants to oust Dr. Shafik.

“My belief is that most law faculty members want to focus on improving the university’s policies rather than unseating a new president and handing Stefanik another scalp,” he said.

• Law.com, In Wake of Arrests, Student Protester Suspensions, Columbia Holds Classes Remotely, Beefs Up Security
• Jonathan Turley (George Washington; Google Scholar), “Deactivated”: Columbia Reportedly Blocks Jewish Professor from Access to Campus