Late in January, Katherine Franke, a prominent Columbia Law School professor and active supporter of the Palestinian cause, appeared on television to talk about a rally demanding divestment from Israel that had taken place on the steps of Low Library a few days before. What marked this protest from the …
Read More »Professors in Trouble Over Protests Wonder if Academic Freedom Is Dying
Maura Finkelstein, an anthropology professor at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania, was an avid poster on social media. She called a fund-raiser for the Israeli war effort “students raising money for genocide,” and she frequently ended her posts with the words “Free Palestine.” After complaints, federal civil rights investigators and the …
Read More »Columbia Cancer Surgeon Notches 5 More Retractions for Suspicious Data
The chief of a cancer surgery division at Columbia University this week had five research articles retracted and a sixth tagged with an editor’s note, underscoring concerns about research misconduct that have lately bedeviled Columbia as well as cancer labs at several other elite American universities. With the latest retractions, …
Read More »Columbia Bars Vocal Pro-Israel Professor From Campus
Columbia University has temporarily barred a vocal pro-Israel professor from campus, saying he repeatedly harassed and intimidated the school’s employees. Shai Davidai, an assistant professor in the business school, has been a polarizing presence on campus since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas led an attack on Israel that has turned …
Read More »Trump and Harris Both Like a Child Tax Credit, but With Different Aims
Vice President Kamala Harris has made an expanded child tax credit central to her campaign, and former President Donald J. Trump boasts, “I doubled the child tax credit.” With a quick look, voters might think the child-rearing subsidy the rare matter on which the rival candidates agree. It is anything …
Read More »Pro-Palestinian Group at Columbia Now Backs ‘Armed Resistance’ by Hamas
The pro-Palestinian group that sparked the student encampment movement at Columbia University in response to the Israel-Hamas war is becoming more hard-line in its rhetoric, openly supporting militant groups fighting Israel and rescinding an apology it made after one of its members said the school was lucky he wasn’t out …
Read More »Campuses Are Calmer, but They Are Not Normal, Students and Faculty Say
On the surface, the scene on Columbia University’s campus appeared to have returned to normal after a spring semester rocked by pro-Palestinian encampments and police crackdowns. Students ate lunch on green lawns last week and tapped a volleyball back and forth under sunny skies. But, “like a horror film,” said …
Read More »Pro-Palestinian Group Is Relentless in Its Criticism of Israel, and It Isn’t Backing Down
Without even entering Grand Central Terminal’s soaring main hall on one Thursday evening in July, Nerdeen Kiswani and her pro-Palestinian protest group, Within Our Lifetime, managed to shut it down. All it took was a flier, posted online, calling on her followers to meet by the iconic clock in the …
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