Dive Brief:
- Columbia University has placed three employees on leave as it investigates text exchanges reportedly sent during a panel discussion on May 31 about the Jewish student experience.
- The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative news outlet, published photos June 12 that it said show Susan Chang-Kim, Columbia’s vice dean and chief administrative officer, texting other university administrators about the panelists.
- The story garnered the attention of Rep. Virginia Foxx, a Republican who chairs the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, who has given Columbia until Wednesday to produce the text messages. The university did not name the staff members that had been put on leave and declined to share specifics Monday on the incident or the probe, citing the pending investigation.
Dive Insight:
During the panel, hosted during Columbia's alumni weekend, an audience member sitting behind Chang-Kim took photos of text exchanges on the administrator’s phone during the event, according to The Free Beacon.
"This is difficult to listen to but I'm trying to keep an open mind to learn about this point of view," Chang-Kim appears to say in a text to Josef Sorett, dean of Columbia College.
The Free Beacon named two other employees as participants in the photographed texts – Cristen Kromm, dean of undergraduate student life, and Matthew Patashnick, associate dean for student and family support.
The news outlet showed images of Kromm reportedly texting, "And we thought Yonah sounded the alarm," followed by another message with two vomit emojis. The texts appear to be referencing an October op-ed about antisemitism penned by Yonah Hain, Columbia's campus rabbi. Hain derided a pro-Palestinian rally at Columbia as aligning with Hamas and said the university community had "lost its moral compass."
According to The Free Beacon, Patashnick also texted that one of the panelists knew "exactly what he's doing and how to take full advantage of this moment."
"Huge fundraising potential," he wrote, according to the publication.
"Columbia College is attending to this situation with the utmost seriousness," a university spokesperson said Monday. "We are committed to confronting antisemitism, discrimination and hate, and taking concrete action to ensure that our is a community of respect and healthy dialogue where everyone feels valued and safe."
Sorett said he is cooperating with the university’s investigation in a Friday afternoon message to the undergraduate board of visitors.
“I deeply regret my role in these text exchanges and the impact they have had on our community," Sorett said.
Foxx condemned the university employees’ actions last week.
"I was appalled, but sadly not surprised, to learn Columbia administrators exchanged disparaging text messages during a panel that discussed antisemitism at the University," she said in a June 17 statement. "Columbia’s Jewish community deserves better than this."
Columbia has been at the center of the dramatic increase in pro-Palestinian demonstrations spurred by the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. Pro-Palestinian protesters set up an encampment at the university during the spring term, sparking similar demonstrations across the country.
