Pictures of the conversation between Susan Chang-Kim, the vice dean and chief administrative officer of Columbia College; Cristen Kromm, the dean of undergraduate student life; and Matthew Patashnick, the associate dean for student and family support, were snapped from over Chang-Kim's shoulder while she was at an event called "Jewish Life on Campus: Past, Present, and Future."
Though Chang-Kim found the presentation difficult to listen to, she said she was trying to keep an open mind about the speaker's point of view. Kromm, however, used vomit emojis in reaction to a Spectator op-ed titled "Sounding the Alarm" about the "normalization of Hamas" that one rabbi saw on campus.
In a letter to the community, Columbia President Minouche Shafik reportedly called the texts "unprofessional" and noted that it "disturbingly touched on ancient antisemitic tropes." The conversation conveyed a "lack of seriousness about the concerns and the experiences of members of our Jewish community," she said.
The three individuals have been permanently removed from their positions as deans, but they are still employed by Columbia University while President Shafik has pledged to launch what she calls a "vigorous program of antisemitism and antidiscrimination training for faculty and staff this fall."
Zachary Marschall, editor-in-chief of Campus Reform, does not think this kind of thing would be allowed against any other minority group, and he says the university should have cracked down on it with a heavy hand, with firings from day one.
"For anyone who still doesn't understand how the Holocaust happened, this is how it happened. It happened through snickering and through indifference," Marschall submits. "This is the kind of lack of regard and disdain towards Jewish Americans that Campus Reform has been reporting about for years. These people exist, and their antipathy toward Jews is real. I don't know what other evidence people need to understand and acknowledge that a lot of leaders in higher education just don't like Jews."
He does not think President Shafik is doing enough to purge Colombia University of its antisemitic elements, and he suspects that could be because she would have to purge herself.
Jackie Tokayer, who is both Jewish and a student at Barnard College, one of Colombia University's undergraduate schools, says the institution is infamous for using vague terminology.
She agrees that firings would have been "extremely appropriate" here.
"People who say things like that at a panel about Jewish life on campus … I don't think have a place as administrators of that university," Tokayer contends.
She deems the university's inaction to be a breaking of trust and a reflection of administrators' lack of respect for Jewish students.
