3 Columbia University Deans Who Sent Insulting Texts Have Resigned

Gaza Protests

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By The New York Times

Published 10 months ago on

August 8, 2024

The pro-Palestinian protest encampment at Columbia University in upper Manhattan, on April 30, 2024. Three Columbia University deans who exchanged disparaging text messages that “touched on ancient antisemitic tropes” during a forum about Jewish issues in May have resigned and are no longer employed by the university, a spokeswoman said Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024. (Bing Guan/The New York Times)

Three Columbia deans resigned after disparaging text messages about Jewish concerns surfaced, showing a lack of sensitivity.
The university's chief operating officer's apartment was vandalized by pro-Palestinian activists in response to the ongoing campus tensions.
Columbia plans new mediation processes and may grant campus police additional powers to address protests and campus safety.

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NEW YORK — Three Columbia University deans who exchanged disparaging text messages that the university president said “touched on ancient antisemitic tropes” during a forum about Jewish issues in May are resigning, a spokesperson said Thursday.

The deans, who had responsibility for undergraduate student affairs, sent the biting and sarcastic messages as they reacted in real time to Jewish speakers expressing concern about antisemitism on campus during the two-hour event.

University President Places Three Deans on Leave

In June, Minouche Shafik, the university president, placed the three deans on indefinite leave as an investigation proceeded.

In the texts, one dean suggested that a Jewish speaker was playing up concerns for fundraising purposes. Another sent vomit emojis in reaction to the mention of a college newspaper opinion piece written by one of the school’s rabbis.

The deans did not respond to calls requesting comment. Samantha Slater, a Columbia spokesperson, confirmed the resignations by email but did not provide further comment.

The episode, which became public in June when an attendee shared her pictures of one of the dean’s cellphones with The Washington Free Beacon, has been deeply embarrassing to the administration. University leaders have been trying to convince Congress, alumni and its own Jewish students that it takes antisemitism on campus seriously.

The turmoil over a scandal some alumni are calling “textgate” comes as Shafik and other administrators prepare for how they will respond to what they expect will be another powerful wave of pro-Palestinian activism in the fall.

In a sign of the university’s challenges, pro-Palestinian vandals attacked the Brooklyn Heights apartment building of the university’s chief operating officer, Cas Holloway, early Thursday morning, splashing red paint on the floor and releasing insects into the lobby, police said.

Before fleeing after 3 a.m., four people plastered posters outside the building showing Holloway with devil ears and behind bars. Another poster said, “You signed off on police brutality. Now you want to expel us?” A glass door pane was also shattered, and upside-down red triangles, a symbol of the Palestinian resistance, were painted around the door.

Police Are Investigating

Police are investigating, and so far there have been no arrests.

In preparation for the new school year, Shafik has announced that there will be a new mediation process for some issues involving protesters, community dialogues and a review of protest rules.

More moves are also being discussed, including possibly giving some campus police new powers to make arrests, which is common for officers at other universities. The idea was first reported in The Wall Street Journal, but no formal proposal has been presented to the University Senate, which would normally be consulted before such a change.

“Columbia has public safety, but basically they can’t physically confront anybody,” said James Applegate, an astronomy professor and member of the executive committee of the University Senate, who said the idea was discussed informally this spring. “So Columbia’s options are, for all intents and purposes, ask politely or go nuclear,” by calling in the New York Police Department, he said.

The three deans who resigned — Susan Chang-Kim, the college’s vice dean and chief administrative officer; Cristen Kromm, the dean of undergraduate student life; and Matthew Patashnick, the associate dean for student and family support — were not faculty members and did not have tenure protections.

Text Messages Are ‘Unacceptable and Deeply Upsetting’

In a July note to the Columbia community, Shafik described the sentiments in the text messages as “unacceptable and deeply upsetting, conveying a lack of seriousness about the concerns and the experiences of members of our Jewish community.” She said the messages “disturbingly touched on ancient antisemitic tropes” and were “antithetical to our university’s values.”

The episode occurred May 31, in the aftermath of student protests that led to mass arrests twice on Columbia’s campus this spring. Columbia hosted a panel discussion called “Jewish Life on Campus: Past, Present and Future.” The panel’s speakers included Brian Cohen, the executive director of Columbia/Barnard Hillel, the Jewish students organization, and David Schizer, the former dean of the law school and a chair of the university’s antisemitism task force.

The three administrators, along with the dean of Columbia College, Josef Sorett, were in the audience. A person sitting behind Chang-Kim photographed the text messages she was exchanging with her colleagues. A transcript of the exchanges was later released by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, which has been investigating antisemitism on college campuses.

Sorett also participated in the text exchanges, though to a lesser extent. After the incident, he sent an apology note to the community. Sorett, a scholar on religion and race, is a tenured professor, which gives him protections that make it harder to remove him from the faculty. He will continue in his position.

“I am deeply sorry that this happened in a community that I lead and, that I was part of any of the exchanges,” Sorett wrote in his note.

He could not be immediately reached for comment Thursday.

Petition to Remove Sorett

A petition signed by more than 2,000 students, alumni, and parents has called on the college to also remove Sorett for his role in the incident. At one point during the text exchanges, Sorett responded with the term “LMAO” — or laughing my ass off — when Chang-Kim said of Columbia’s Hillel director, Brian Cohen, “He is our hero.”

The incident confirmed the worst fears of some Jewish students who were disturbed by how anti-Israel protests on campus were being handled.

“I had already understood that they didn’t take our concerns seriously, but the overt disdain was really upsetting,” said Elisha Baker, a rising junior and leader of Aryeh, a pro-Israel campus group. “It totally delegitimized the strategy of listening sessions. Not only did they not hear us, they saw our speaking as some sort of privilege.”

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Sharon Otterman/Bing Guan
c.2024 The New York Times Company