In an open letter to President Minouche Shafik, 13 Trump-appointed federal judges have announced that they will not hire graduates of Columbia University because the campus has become “ground zero for the explosion of student disruptions, antisemitism, and hatred for diverse viewpoints.”
The boycott, including undergraduates and law students, is irrational, self-defeating and unethical — with no redeeming features. How bad is it? Let me count the ways.
Irrational. Although the judges’ letter doesn’t specifically mention the Columbia encampment protesting Israel’s war on Hamas, that was, obviously, the context for their complaint that “Disruptors have threatened violence, committed assaults and destroyed property.”
It is true that the Columbia students, and their more militant allies outside the campus gate, have been more aggressive than most. Columbia was the first school where pro-Palestinians staged a successful building takeover, breaking windows and destroying property in the process.
But it is a non sequitur to blame the university for the disruptions of its most unruly students. Shafik was by far the most adamant of the university presidents who testified before the House Education and Workforce Committee. She declared, where others equivocated, that calling for “genocide of the Jews” would violate Columbia’s code of conduct.
Shafik has twice called New York City police to remove protesters. Unlike some other presidents — at Northwestern and Brown, for example — she refused to accede to their demands. More students have been arrested at Columbia than at any other university, including those with much greater enrollments.
Whether one favors negotiation or law enforcement, it is nonsensical to accuse Columbia of tolerating violations of “established rules concerning the use of university facilities and public spaces.”
The judges’........