I Attended Columbia University—I Don’t Recognize It Today

May 2, 2024
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Also published in The Hill
A student protester holds a sign reading "Globalize the Intifada" at Columbia University in New York City - source: Reuters
About the Authors
Ben Fishman
Ben Fishman

Ben Fishman is the Steven D. Levy Senior Fellow in the Linda and Tony Rubin Program on Arab Politics at The Washington Institute, where he focuses on North Africa.

Articles & Testimony

Administrators should do more to help students critically assess the barrage of disinformation they are subjected to outside the classroom—while also punishing those who clearly violate the institution’s policies and core values.

Columbia University is unrecognizable these days. On April 30, protesters took over Hamilton Hall after a months-long tent encampment accompanied by radical hooligans shouting antisemitic slogans outside the university’s gates. Any genuine concern for Gazans was dispelled by a protester who demanded “basic humanitarian assistance” not for Gaza, but for the students who violently took over Hamilton Hall. In my student days, one reason Columbia attracted me was its “core” curriculum, which was established after World War I as an antidote to the mass destruction of humanity in Europe. Today, Columbia needs a real commitment to reengaging a new generation, attuned to social media, and thus bombarded with graphic imagery from the Gaza war on the one hand or the brutal murders, rapes and hostage taking that instigated the war—both extremely serious issues. Separating truth from disinformation and lies is increasingly difficult. As one step, Columbia can pioneer a core course on values and social media...

Read the full article on the Hill website.

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