NEW YORK – Columbia University is a well-known and popular institution, so when three administrators were placed on indefinite leave and will not be returning to their position due to antisemitic text messages about Jewish students, it came as a shock.
Susan Chang-Kim, Cristen Kromm, Matthew Patashnick, and Josef Sorett were the staff members involved. Chang-Kim holds the position of vice-dean and chief administrative officer of Columbia College, Kromm is the dean of undergraduate student life, Patashnick is the associate dean for student and family support, and Sorett is the dean of Columbia University.
Last May, the campus hosted a discussion panel on Jewish Life when the three deans were texting each other, according to NPR news. These texts mocked students’ already existing complaints of antisemitism on the campus. Columbia stated that these texts “disturbingly touched on ancient antisemitic tropes.” However, the texts were only recently released after antisemitism began to be investigated by the congressional committee.
University president, Minouche Shafik, vowed to launch antidiscrimination and antisemitism trainings for students and staff to prevent these issues from continuing on campus.
The Committee of Education & the Workforce published the text messages on July 2, 2024. These text messages consisted of criticism of Brian Cohen, Lavine Family Executive Director of Columbia at Columbia’s Center for Jewish Life, and how difficult the administrators found it to listen to the words of the students, stating “Amazing what $$$ can do,” and how “he is such a problem,” upon Cohen pointing out the antisemitism on campus due to how it is “painting our students as dangerous.”
Chang-Kim specifically stated that the student’s plights come “from such a place of privilege… hard to hear the woe is me, we need to huddle at the Kraft Center. Huh?” in reference to Columbia University using its Kraft Center as a sport of refuge for Jewish students.
The text messages can be reviewed here.
