A master class in doublespeak: On Friday, Columbia’s interim president Katrina Armstrong presented a memo to the Trump administration committing to reform the school’s policies on masked protests, disciplinary procedures, and more. She sent a different message to angry faculty members over the weekend.
Armstrong, according to a transcript of the meeting, said there would be “no changes to masking” and that the university’s disciplinary process “remains independent” and “has not been moved” to her office pursuant to the Trump administration’s request.
The memo the school released to the public, though, indicated that Columbia was making changes, stating that “face masks or face coverings are not allowed for the purpose of concealing one’s identity” and announcing that the University Judicial Board, responsible for student discipline, would be “situated within and overseen by the Office of the Provost, who reports to the President of Columbia.”
The changes are supposed to unlock “long-term” negotiations with the Trump administration to restore approximately $430 million in federal funds. But Armstrong has to implement them first, and her private rhetoric “calls into question whether Columbia will indeed make it to the negotiating table,” writes our Collin Anderson. Indeed, a Monday protest against the mask policy—during which masked students marched through campus and were not stopped for an ID check—suggests Armstrong’s “private comments are more in line with reality than her public memo.”
READ MORE: Columbia President Talks Out of Both Sides of Her Mouth on Masking and Disciplinary Process
Even terrorists need PR help: And they’ve turned to student radicals at Columbia, including Mahmoud Khalil, to provide it, according to a new lawsuit.
The families of Oct. 7 victims and hostages filed the suit in federal court on Monday. It accuses Students for Justice in Palestine and parent organization American Muslims for Palestine of leading Hamas’s “U.S.-based in-house public relations firm.” As one of those groups’ “most important partners,” Khalil’s Columbia University Apartheid Divest heads the firm’s “New York City branches,” according to the suit.
“U.S. intelligence has long indicated that Hamas’s patrons in Iran encouraged and funded anti-Israel campus protests in America,” writes the Free Beacon‘s Adam Kredo. “The suit, however, provides specific examples that point to coordination between Iran, Hamas, and U.S. protesters—and seeks to place Khalil, CUAD, SJP, and AMP on the hook for damages as a result.”
It details, for example, an illegal Barnard protest that Khalil led earlier this month, during which CUAD members disseminated a manifesto from Hamas’s “Media Office” that outlines the terror group’s official “narrative” on “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.” It also notes that another anti-Semitic organization in New York City, Within Our Lifetime, organized a nationwide “economic blockade” last April after Hamas’s terror patron, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, issued an internal memo instructing its foreign allies to organize just that.
A quiet place to read and think (about anarchy): Students who visited Columbia’s main library on Monday night were met with pamphlets outlining how to “build a culture of resistance against” ICE and protect themselves while illegally occupying buildings, our Jessica Schwalb reports.
The first pamphlet, titled “8 THINGS YOU CAN DO TO STOP ICE,” was attributed to CrimethInc, an anarchist group that wants to abolish police. The second, titled, “KNOW YOUR RIGHTS FOR CAMPUS PROTESTS,” urged students to find allied faculty members and administrators and to avoid discipline for their demonstrations. They filled a bin sporting two labels. One said “Know Your Rights Educational Resources,” while the other read “Property of library staff—do not remove.”
While it’s unclear exactly who posted the pamphlets, “Columbia agitators have already taken cues from CrimethInc,” writes Schwalb. “In January, student radicals followed instructions the anarchist group authored to clog the toilets of a Columbia graduate school with cement. Those instructions were included in CrimethInc.’s “Recipes For Disaster” tactical guide, which was featured during an event hosted by Alpha Delta Phi, a university-recognized student organization.”
READ MORE: Pamphlets in Columbia Library Teach Students How To ‘Stop ICE,’ ‘Shut Out The Police’
Away from the Beacon:
- Thousands of Gazans took to the streets to protest Hamas on Tuesday, chanting, “For god’s sake, Hamas out” and “Hamas terrorists.” Let’s see if the Ivy League students acting in their name pick up what they’re putting down.
- Teachers’ union gets in on the action: The AFT, along with the American Association of University Professors, sued the Trump administration on behalf of a group of Columbia professors, arguing that the administration’s cuts to the school’s federal funding are “unlawful and unprecedented.” Columbia itself is not making that claim (at least not yet).
- CNN’s chief data analyst, Harry Enten, took to the airwaves to deliver a “reality check”: “Let’s take a look at the percentage of the country who say that we’re on the right track. It’s actually a very high percentage when you compare it to some historical numbers. What are we talking about? According to Marist, 45 percent say that we’re on the right track—that’s the second highest Marist has mentioned since 2009.”
Original News Source – Washington Free Beacon
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