An internal Columbia University committee has cleared faculty of any anti-Semitic harassment, despite scores of complaints from students that pro-Israel viewpoints — and, in some cases, mere Jewish identity — are not tolerated in many Columbia classrooms. But this NY Sun report certainly leaves one wondering just how transparent Columbia is being:
In an effort to manage favorable coverage of its investigation into the complaints, the university disclosed a summary of the committee’s report only to the Columbia Spectator, the campus newspaper, and the New York Times. Those newspapers, sources indicated to The New York Sun last night, made an agreement with the central administration that they would not speak to the students who made the complaints against the professors.
The Sun obtained a copy of the report without the permission of the university administration. Last night, when a reporter from the Sun came to Low Library, the central administration building, for a copy of the report, a security guard threatened to arrest the reporter if she did not leave the building.
According to one student, senior Ariel Beery, one of the campus’s most outspoken critics of the professors, a Columbia spokeswoman told him that students were not being shown the report yesterday “for your own good.”
Judith Weiss has been Columbia-probe central — we’re anxiously awaiting her take on this.
