International Courant
NEW YORK — Columbia College mentioned it has positioned three directors on depart whereas it investigates allegations that they exchanged unprofessional textual content messages whereas attending a panel dialogue on anti-Semitism on campus.
The college mentioned the directors work for undergraduate Columbia School, which hosted the panel dialogue “Jewish Life on Campus: Previous, Current and Future” throughout an alumni reunion on Might 31.
The college’s dean, Josef Sorett, knowledgeable his staff on Thursday that the three directors have been positioned on depart.
“Columbia School is treating this example with the utmost seriousness,” a college spokesperson mentioned. “We’re dedicated to confronting anti-Semitism, discrimination and hatred and taking concrete motion to make sure that we kind a neighborhood of respect and wholesome dialogue the place everybody feels valued and secure.”
Columbia didn’t title the directors and declined to debate the matter additional whereas the investigation is ongoing.
The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative information outlet, revealed photographs of what it mentioned had been the directors’ textual content messages on June 12 and 21. One urged {that a} panelist may have used the campus protests for fundraising, and one other criticized a campus rabbi’s essay on anti-Semitism.
The panel on anti-Semitism was held a month after college leaders known as in police to clear pro-Palestinian protesters from an occupied administration constructing and dismantle a tent camp that threatened to disrupt commencement ceremonies.
The police motion got here amid deep divisions on campus over whether or not some protests towards Israel’s navy marketing campaign in Gaza had been anti-Semitic.
Some textual content messages allegedly despatched by Sorett had been amongst these revealed by the information station, however he was not amongst these positioned on depart. He’ll stay dean and cooperate within the investigation, the college mentioned.
“I deeply remorse my position in these textual content exchanges and the impression they’ve had on our neighborhood,” Sorett mentioned in a message to the Columbia School Board of Guests on Friday.
Sorett mentioned he’s “dedicated to studying from this example and dealing to fight anti-Semitism, discrimination and hate in Columbia.”
3 Columbia College directors have been positioned on depart for alleged textual content exchanges on the anti-Semitism panel
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