Columbia gifts flaming anti-Semite named Jasmine

The former institution of higher learning, Columbia University, has given Farah Jasmine Griffin an award for highest academic distinction. "Nobody supports BDS (Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement against Israel) and calls for the end of Israel like Farah. Nobody," said anonymous sources associated with Columbia.

The so called "school" bestowed the BDS maven to the position of "University Professor," the former school's "highest academic distinction," that was historically given when the school was academically distinct.

Columbia president Claire Shipman bragged that Griffin is "a scholar of rare breadth and clarity," as to her clear take on the need to destroy the Jewish state and every person who dwells within it. 

"The Ship Lady" as her students lovingly call Columbia's president, expressed her appreciation of how Griffin has always been outspoken about her feelings regarding the, you know, um, the Jews and Israel.

Columbia University’s latest move is raising eyebrows, and not in a good way. The school has just named Professor Joseph Massad, sorry, University Professor Joseph Massad, as one of its most distinguished scholars, despite a resume that reads like a BDS activist’s dream journal. This comes as Columbia’s new president, is scrambling to mend fences with the Trump administration, which has slashed over $430 million in federal funding and put the university’s accreditation on thin ice. 

Talk about timing.

Massad’s history is, shall we say, colorful. Back in 2002, he signed a divestment petition targeting Israel, which didn’t exactly win him fans among Columbia’s then-president Lee Bollinger. Fast forward to 2016, and Massad was at it again, putting his name on a faculty petition that accused Israel of “inhumane segregation and systemic forms of discrimination” and demanded Columbia divest “from corporations that supply, perpetuate, and profit from a system that has subjugated the Palestinian people for over 68 years.” 

That’s not exactly a neutral stance on a contentious issue and it fails to mention October 7, 2023 and the little misunderstanding that happened in Israel that day.

Then there’s last spring’s chaos. Photos surfaced showing Massad allegedly playing protest marshal at Columbia’s illegal encampment, a hot mess of a demonstration that disrupted campus life. His job was to stand guard and shielding student protesters. Massad denies it, but the optics aren’t great for a guy now crowned with Columbia’s highest academic honor.

To become a University Professor, you need the blessing of Columbia’s academic elite, and a penchant for anti-Semitism and communism. 

The faculty handbook is crystal clear: Candidates “are nominated to the Trustees by the President on the recommendation of the Provost and with the affirmative advice of the tenured members of the Executive Committee of the University Senate.” That committee’s chairwoman, tenured professor Jeanine D’Armiento, was a vocal cheerleader for last year’s encampment. Cozy, right? 

The handbook also gushes that University Professors are “exceptional scholars with the highest distinction who have served the University extensively.” Only eight can hold the title at once, making it Columbia’s equivalent of academic knighthood and more recently a jihad.

But not everyone’s rolling out the red carpet. 

Lishi Baker, a Columbia senior studying Middle Eastern history, isn’t buying the hype. “I’m all for viewpoint diversity,” he told the Washington Free Beacon, “but if Columbia is trying to change the culture on campus, they should reward faculty whose contributions don’t come with anti-Semitism, discrimination, or disruption.” 

Eden Yadegar, a recent Columbia grad and former president of Columbia Students Supporting Israel, piled on. “Granting the university’s highest honor to a faculty member with a known and extensive record of anti-Semitic discrimination,” she said, “is the very antithesis of the sort of action Columbia should be taking if they truly are committed to positive change.” 

Columbia, predictably, didn’t respond to requests for comment. Massad’s activism doesn’t stop at BDS. He’s also gone to bat for Steven Salaita, the English professor whose job offer from the University of Illinois got yanked after he defended Hamas and called supporters of Israel sociopaths. Massad’s response? He pledged to boycott the university and someone yelled Al's snackbar.

Back in 2005, shortly after joining Columbia, Massad served on a faculty committee investigating claims that Middle Eastern studies professors were intimidating Jewish students. The committee’s report? A big fat “nothing to see here.” Some Jewish students cried foul, accusing Massad and the committee of bias. Go figure.

This all lands as Columbia’s trying to claw back its federal funding, which they so richly don't deserve.

In March, the university rolled out policy changes to appease the Trump administration, which called them “preconditions” for “long-term” funding talks. No deal yet, though, and Shipman’s last update on June 12 didn’t exactly brim with optimism. “In my view, it is essential to restore our research partnership with the government, if possible,” she said. “Our red lines remain the same and are defined by who we are and what we stand for. We must maintain our autonomy and independent governance. We decide who teaches at our institution, what they teach, and which students we admit.” 

Noble words, but honoring Massad might not scream “we’re serious about reform.”

To top it off, Columbia’s accreditor, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, dropped a bombshell the same day as Massad’s appointment. The university’s “accreditation may be in jeopardy because of insufficient evidence that the institution is currently in compliance with Standard II (Ethics and Integrity),” they wrote, just weeks after the Trump administration flagged similar issues. 

Ethics and integrity? Maybe Columbia’s handbook needs a new chapter.

If Shipman’s goal was to signal a fresh start, elevating Massad seems like a curious way to go. At a time when Columbia’s begging for federal dollars and accreditation grace, handing a gilded title to a professor with a track record of divisive activism might just be the academic equivalent of stepping on a rake. 

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Pro-Hamas dolts learn things have changed this year: there's a new sheriff in town

Oh, look at the ivory towers crumbling under the weight of their own sanctimonious balderdash. Over 100 anti-Israel, pro-Hamasshole wannabe revolutionaries got the cuffs slapped on at Columbia, Swarthmore, and the University of Washington. Campus and local cops swooped in like the fun police at a vegan barbecue, breaking up the chaos faster than you can say “divestment tantrum.”

At Columbia, these brainiacs thought storming Butler Library was peak activism, disrupting students cramming for finals so badly they had to flee. Eighty of these keyboard warriors were hauled off in zip ties. ICE was there, too, playing “Guess the Visa Status” with the pro-Hamas crowd, checking if any of these disruptors were non-citizens about to get a one-way ticket home. 

The State Department, not messing around, dropped a gem: “Foreign university students in America have been put on notice: if you break the law or support terrorism in our country, we will revoke your visa. This administration will not tolerate noncitizens causing mayhem on our college campuses.” Ouch. Bet that stung harder than a rejected Pell Grant.

This is a 180 from Columbia’s spineless performance last year, when they let protesters set up a tent city, storm classrooms, take over admin buildings, and harass Jewish students and faculty like it was a sanctioned extracurricular. 

This time, acting President Claire Shipman, probably sweating buckets, called in the NYPD after the protesters’ “substantial chaos” and “serious risk to our students and campus safety.” Her words, not mine. She even saw two security guards getting patched up after being roughed up and described Butler’s reading room—Columbia’s pride and joy—looking like it got a makeover by a toddler with a spray can: “defaced and damaged in disturbing ways and with disturbing slogans.”

What changed? Two words: Donald Trump. 

The man’s shadow looms large, and suddenly, schools are feeling the heat. The threat of yanking grants and federal goodies has universities clutching their pearls, debating whether they can keep coddling bad behavior. Spoiler: they can’t. They’ve had years to stop punishing free speech, protect Jewish students, and follow civil rights laws that don’t play favorites with race. But nah, they’d rather navel-gaze and call it “dialogue.”

Over at the University of Washington, protesters thought occupying an engineering building and demanding Boeing divestment was their moment. They set dumpster fires, blocked exits, and caused $1 million in damage to an equipment room, per the Washington State Standard. Thirty of them got arrested, and three federal agencies piled on the next day, announcing a review of the school’s federal grants. Their message? “The university must do more to deter future violence and guarantee that Jewish students have a safe and productive learning environment.” Translation: get your act together, or kiss your funding goodbye.

Swarthmore’s no better. 

Nine students got nabbed trying to set up a tent city for their suspended Students for Justice in Palestine chapter. President Val Smith, sounding like she was over it, said, “I felt we had no choice but to seek outside assistance from local law enforcement,” especially since non-student randos tried crashing the party.

Trump’s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, born from a February executive order, gave Shipman a gold star, calling her statement “strong and resolute.” They added, “We concur with Acting President Shipman that what happened was utterly unacceptable, which is precisely why the American people are demanding that the administration act to implement meaningful and enforceable commitments to enforce civil rights laws with institutions that receive taxpayer dollars.” 

In other words, Columbia, you’re not getting your $400 million in grants back, so maybe stop acting like a petulant child.

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Katherine S. Cho, some professor from Loyola Chicago, whines that universities like Columbia are “under high surveillance” and can’t treat protests as “a mechanism of learning, conversation, and civic engagement” anymore. What were they going to learn? How to support terrorists?

Last year, they were “teaching moments”; now, they’re problems to squash. Maybe that’s because setting fires and trashing libraries isn’t exactly Socratic dialogue.

These schools are living in a parallel universe where consequences don’t exist. Maybe these crackdowns will drag them back to reality, where the rest of us deal with things like laws and accountability. 

Don’t hold your breath, though—academia’s got a Ph.D. in denial.

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Columbia U. lays off 180 staff since Trump admin revokes their grants

Columbia University’s getting hit hard. The Ivy League giant’s slashing about 180 jobs this week after the Trump administration pulled the plug on $400 million in federal grants back in March. Why? Because Columbia dropped the ball on protecting Jewish students from anti-Semitic harassment. 

Acting President Claire Shipman didn’t sugarcoat it: “Across the research portfolio we have had to make difficult choices and unfortunately, today, nearly 180 of our colleagues who have been working, in whole or in part, on impacted federal grants, will receive notices of non-renewal or termination.” 

That’s a hefty 20% of the folks tied to those grants, by the way. She’s not done: “In the coming weeks and months, we will need to continue to take actions that preserve our financial flexibility and allow us to invest in areas that drive us forward.” 

Translation? More tough calls are coming, and it’s gonna be a bumpy ride. Shipman admits it’s a “deeply challenging time” for higher ed, and navigating this mess with “precision” is, well, “imperfect at times.” 

Back in March, the feds—DOJ, HHS, Education, and GSA—came down like a ton of bricks, canceling that $400 million.  “The school’s continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.” 

Columbia’s response at the time was blunt: “There is no question that the cancellation of these funds will immediately impact research and other critical functions of the University, impacting students, faculty, staff, research, and patient care.” That’s a lot of collateral damage.

By April, Columbia was waving the white flag, bending to Trump admin demands to get some of that cash back. They banned masks used to hide identities (good luck enforcing that), gave 36 campus cops new arrest powers, and created a senior vice provost to keep an eye on the Middle East, South Asian, and African Studies department, plus the Center for Palestine Studies. Talk about a shake-up.

Shipman says they’re still sweet-talking the feds to restart funding: “Columbia’s leadership continues discussions with the federal government in support of resuming activity on these research awards and additional other awards that have remained active, but unpaid.” 

But with budget cuts looming and federal funding looking shakier than a Jenga tower—especially with talk of slashing reimbursements for “facilities and administration” costs—she’s bracing for impact.

“Increasing budget constraints combined with uncertainty related to future levels of federal funding for research… requires us to make difficult choices,” Shipman said. “We have had to make deliberate, considered decisions about the allocation of our financial resources. Those decisions also impact our greatest resource, our people. We understand this news will be hard.”

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