Columbia faculty rights group condemns university’s handling of library takeover: ‘Authoritarian ethos’

A faculty rights group at Columbia University condemned the administration’s response to an anti-Israel protest at the campus library on Wednesday, which resulted in dozens of arrests.

A letter from the executive committee of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) at Columbia aimed at addressing the “erosion of shared governance” denounced a decision made by acting president Claire Shipman to call the NYPD for assistance.

The protest broke out on Wednesday afternoon when anti-Israel agitators stormed Butler Library, occupying a reading room inside and breaching one of the building’s exterior doors. Two campus police officers were also injured during the protest.

The NYPD said 80 arrests were made, and Fox News learned approximately 50 of those people were confirmed to be Columbia students.

DOZENS OF ANTI-ISRAEL AGITATORS ARRESTED AFTER STORMING, TAKING OVER COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARY DURING FINALS 

In its letter, the AAUP mostly ignored the details of the protest, which damaged and disrupted a study area for students preparing for finals, and described the incident as “tragic” while focusing on the university’s “institutional slide toward executive rule.”

The group said in an attempt to “placate” the Trump administration, Columbia’s leadership has weakened academic freedom, shared governance and student protest, “echoing the authoritarian ethos now holding sway in Washington.”

“As the Trump administration has demanded ever more draconian crackdowns on student protest, our administration has responded by granting enhanced powers to public security that can as easily escalate as defuse confrontations with students and that last night did not prevent the administration from again summoning the NYPD to campus,” the group wrote, in part.

COLUMBIA’S ACTING PRESIDENT SLAMS STORMING OF CAMPUS LIBRARY BY ANTI-ISRAEL AGITATORS: ‘UTTERLY UNACCEPTABLE’ 

Prior to Wednesday’s protest, Shipman had said she would be reviewing and reforming the University Senate, which is a governing body at Columbia made up of elected representatives from all departments on campus, amid negotiations with the federal government over the drastic cut in funding to the university.

In March, Columbia lost more than $400 million in federal grants after the Trump administration said the school failed to address the rise in antisemitism on campus.

The AAUP called on her not to follow through with the review as the university is experiencing a “moment of crisis,” adding that it “strenuously objects to both the timing and the plan” for it.

“In imposing this review at this time and in this manner, the President and the Board of Trustees are taking aim at shared governance and replacing it with top-down corporate management, indicating a profound misunderstanding of what university leadership and fiduciary obligations require,” the group said.

The group shared a list of six recommendations, which call for a “unified response to the current crisis” instead of dismantling the decision-making structures that have been in place for decades.

The AAUP has also been vocal in its criticism of Columbia for punishing, suspending and expelling students involved in anti-Israel protests on campus.

One of the group’s recommendations includes radically enhancing “mediation, consultation and de-escalation protocols for immediate deployment during campus disturbances, especially student protests.”