A member of Columbia University’s top disciplinary body defended the anti-Semitic student agitators who took over a campus building in the spring, arguing their behavior was "reactive" and came after university officials "pushed aside" their demands, including divestment from Israel.
Those remarks came during the course of an Aug. 23 meeting of the Columbia University Senate. Susan Bernofsky, a professor of writing who has expressed dismay that a "right-wing rag" like the Washington Free Beacon breaks news about Columbia, bemoaned "having to put so much time, energy, and thought into disciplining students for their actions." Former Columbia president Minouche Shafik's resignation, she said, provided "an opportunity for a reset," one that Bernofsky argued should be used to collaborate with student activists rather than to discipline them.
"I'm a rules committee member, but speaking for myself at this point," Bernofsky said, according to an audio recording of the meeting obtained by the Free Beacon.
"The encampment was one of a series of escalations that happened over the course of many months," she argued, after university officials declined to discuss "the endowment and all these things and divestment possibilities."
"This conversation was pushed aside and turned into a series of escalations that ended up with an encampment and an occupation of the hall, which is something none of us want."
Bernofsky's defense of violent student agitators comes as the rules committee she sits on conducts a "comprehensive review" of Columbia's protest policies.
Columbia administrators are bracing for another round of unrest this fall. Indeed, anti-Israel protesters conducted unruly protests on days one and two of the fall semester, with students praising Hamas and vandalizing a prominent campus statue.
It's unclear whether those students will be disciplined. Columbia, which did not respond to a request for comment, said student protesters who took over Hamilton Hall in April would "face expulsion." By August, however, only 4 of the 22 students arrested inside the building had faced any kind of disciplinary action, with the rest remaining in good standing with Columbia.
Bernofsky has faced criticism from other Columbia professors, particularly after the Free Beacon reported last month that she and another rules committee member, Joseph Slaughter, appeared to have participated in the encampment that preceded the Hamilton Hall takeover.
Bernofsky, who was photographed standing guard at the perimeter of the encampment, could "bias" the rules committee, computer science professor Itsik Pe'er told the Free Beacon. Elliot Glassman, an architecture professor, said Bernofsky and Slaughter sitting on the rules committee was like "wolves guarding the henhouse."
Bernofsky did not respond to a request for comment.
While Bernofsky blamed Shafik's administration for refusing to hear out anti-Israel protesters, Columbia officials spent days negotiating with protest leaders during the height of the encampment. They refused to budge, saying they would not leave their tents unless Shafik agreed to all of their demands, which included divestment from companies linked to Israel.
After the negotiations brought no results, Shafik urged the protesters to "voluntarily" leave the encampment. Hours later, they stormed Hamilton Hall.
The same student groups behind those violent displays are still calling for divestment from Israel. They did so last week on the first day of class, when Columbia's Students for Justice in Palestine chapter prevented students from entering campus and promised further disruption.
Another protest group, Unity of Fields, took credit for dumping red paint on Columbia's bronze Alma Mater statue. The group said it did so "in full support of the Palestinian resistance" and would not stop until it achieved "the total collapse of the university structure and American empire itself."
Bernofsky argued that Columbia interim president Katrina Armstrong could stop the unrest by opening "lines of communication" with protesters.
"I very much hope the new administration coming in will cut this off at the pass, will really open the lines of communication in advance to avoid creating the situation where we had the students being so reactive and then us having to figure out how to punish them for their reactiveness," she said at the Aug. 23 meeting. "We have an opportunity for a reset."
Update, 12:05 p.m.: This piece has been updated to clarify Pe'er's comments.