Three senior Columbia University officials were removed from their positions for sending text messages earlier this year that “disturbingly touched on long-standing anti-Semitic tropes,” the university told community members in a letter, The New York Times reports.
The staff – Cristen Kromm, former dean of undergraduate student life; Matthew Patashnick, former associate dean of student and family support; and Susan Chang-Kim, former vice-chancellor and chief administrative officer – will remain at the university but are on indefinite leave, according to Monday’s letter.
The scandal began last month, when Washington’s Free Lighthousea conservative media outlet, published photos of text messages between administratorswhich were taken during a May panel on campus about Jewish life.
During the event, where attendees shared their experiences confronting anti-Semitism on campus, footage captured high-level officials appearing to mock the speakers.
“He knows exactly what he’s doing and how to make the most of this moment,” Patashnick allegedly wrote of one speaker, describing him as seeking “huge fundraising potential.”
As one speaker talked about an increase in attendance at a Jewish student center, Chang-Kim Kim reportedly wrote, “Coming from such a privileged place…it’s hard to hear that woe is me, we need to gather at the Kraft center.”
Meanwhile, Kromm allegedly posted vomit emojis beneath a reference to an essay by a campus rabbi, published last year in a campus newspaper, alleging that some on campus had embraced a “normalization of Hamas.”
The Independent sought comment from the deans mentioned in the Columbia letter.
The text messages sparked outrage among the Columbia community.
More than 1,000 former students resigned from one of the deans involved in the text conversations, while a Republican-controlled committee in the U.S. House of Representatives wanted records of Columbia’s text messages, a request granted by the university.
In the message sent to campus on Monday, Columbia President Nemat Shafik called the messages “unacceptable and deeply disturbing, conveying a lack of seriousness about the concerns and experiences of members of our Jewish community.”
As The Independent reported, Colombia has been at the center of the national wave of protests and counter-protests surrounding the Israel-Hamas war, where students occupied campus buildings, and Protesters faced a violent crackdown from NYPD riot police on campus.
Students and teachers from a variety of different backgrounds They claimed to feel insecure and silenced when sharing their views.
O school is under federal investigation for alleged anti-Semitism and Islamaphobia on campus.
