The report, titled The Classroom Experience at Columbia: Protecting the Academic Freedom of Faculty and Students and released on Tuesday, also cited numerous instances in which the academic freedom of Jewish and Israeli students was not protected in classrooms.
One student told the task force that an teacher had told students that Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, was an antisemite, and Jews of Eastern European origin are not really Jewish.
The new report is the first to be released since Columbia reached a deal with the Trump administration in July to restore some $400 million in federal funding – funds which were frozen in March due to the university’s record dealing with antisemitism, according to the government.
The report calls on university leadership to work quickly to “add more intellectual diversity” and to establish “new chairs at a senior level in Middle East history, politics, political economy and policy” to address the imbalance.
The school’s acting president, Claire Shipman – who herself attracted controversy earlier this year when she called for the removal of a Jewish member of the university’s board, and agreed with the committee’s characterisation of him as a “mole” – said Columbia would “continue to work on implementing the recommendations of the task force and addressing antisemitism on our campus.”
Claire Shipman, acting president of Columbia University (Image: Getty)POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Columbia’s 13-member Task Force to Combat Antisemitism was formed one month after the October 7 massacres in Israel as a response to a surge of antisemitism on campus.
Columbia University is one of several higher education institutions in America to have been investigated by the Education Department over allegations of antisemitism on campus following a wave of anti-Israel demonstrations that swept through the country last year.
A number of former students have had their degrees revoked, while some of the participants in a protest have been expelled.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators march through the Columbia University campus (Credit: KENA BETANCUR/AFP via Getty Images) AFP via Getty Images
Demonstrations calling for an “intifada revolution” became a regular feature on campus, and there were scenes of masked anti-Israel protesters barging into and disrupting classrooms.
The latest report cited instances of professors encouraging their students, during class, to participate in the year’s anti-Israel protests. Some even held classes or office hours within anti-Israel encampments, where Zionists were not welcome.
The report builds on a series of earlier inquiries released by the task force, each one offering solutions to a different key issue impacting Jewish students at the Ivy League university.
According to reports, there has been less turbulence on campus since the deal to restore federal funding was struck with the Trump administration.
