What Happened to Columbia University?

As a recent Columbia University graduate, I have been watching the events unfolding at my alma mater with anger and sadness. Earlier this week, Columbia President Minouche Shafik wisely decided to suspend traditional in-person classes and instead hold virtual classes. This was done after the arrest of 108 pro-Palestinian Columbia and Barnard College students from their “Gaza Solidarity Encampment,” which was set up at the center of Columbia University’s campus. Amid the chaos, New England Patriots owner, businessman, and Columbia alumnus Robert Kraft rescinded his substantial financial support until the Columbia University administration deals with the “virulent hate” on display on campus.

Additionally, Chair of the House Republican Conference Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) called for Shafik’s immediate resignation on April 21st. As expected, most academics are labeling the arrest of pro-Palestinian protestors a repression of free speech and freedom of expression. They further argue that it is incumbent on the administration of Ivy League universities to ensure “academic freedom,” a nebulous term if ever there was one. For the last few weeks, my cellphone has been blowing up with emails, voicemails, and text messages from friends asking me what about the goings-on at Columbia. While I do not claim to have definitive answers and do not wish to get into the weeds of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict in this piece, my general theory as to the nature of the problem is as follows: As is usually the case, there is nothing new under the sun, and what we see here is the modern-day manifestation of the argument William F. Buckley makes in his influential 1951 book God and Man at Yale.

Even if one has never read the book, Buckley’s argument will be quite familiar to most conservatives following the situation at Columbia. Radical professors and the administration of Yale University were destroying American society—according to Buckley—by indoctrinating the nation’s “best and brightest” with Marxist-inspired ideas about collectivism and atheism. This subversion was made possible under the auspices of “academic freedom.” Buckley rightly asserted that academic freedom was an illusion, arguing that the Yale sociology department would never hire a professor who lectured about the anthropological superiority of the Aryan race. To the disdain of the liberals of his time, Buckley opposed the idea of an open society.