A longtime tenured Columbia College regulation professor who confronted public criticism from Columbia’s president and congressional Republicans will not educate on the establishment, after greater than 25 years as a school member there.
Katherine Franke stated Friday in a letter that she’s successfully been terminated, following a college investigation right into a media interview she gave by which she criticized college students who previously served within the Israel Protection Forces for allegedly harming different college students at Columbia. The investigation discovered that her media feedback, and her alleged retaliation in opposition to a complainant in subsequent feedback, had violated Columbia’s Division of Equal Alternative and Affirmative Motion Insurance policies and Procedures.
She’s amongst a number of U.S. school members who’ve been investigated or punished in connection to speech that may broadly be thought of pro-Palestinian.
In a press release, Franke stated she reached an settlement with Columbia “that relieves me of my obligations to show or take part in school governance after serving on the Columbia regulation school for 25 years.” She added, “Whereas the college might name this modification in my standing ‘retirement,’ it ought to be extra precisely understood as a termination dressed up in additional palatable phrases.”
She didn’t share a duplicate of the departure settlement, nor did the college. Columbia didn’t instantly reply to her characterization of her departure.
In a broadcast final January on Democracy Now!, a left-leaning radio and tv newscast, Franke talked about an incident on campus by which pro-Palestinian protesters stated they’d been sprayed with a dangerous chemical. College students had been hospitalized, and protest organizers accused different college students who had served within the Israeli army. The college stated in August that the substance sprayed was “a non-toxic, authorized, novelty merchandise.”
Franke informed the host that Columbia has a program that connects it with “older college students from different nations, together with Israel. And it’s one thing that many people had been involved about, as a result of so lots of these Israeli college students, who then come to the Columbia campus, are coming proper out of their army service. They usually’ve been identified to harass Palestinian and different college students on our campus. And it’s one thing the college has not taken significantly previously.”
Most Jewish residents of Israel should serve within the army for a minimum of 32 months for males and 24 for ladies.
“We all know who they had been,” Franke stated on this system of the alleged attackers at Columbia. (Franke wrote in her assertion Friday that, “I’ve lengthy had a priority that the transition from the mindset required of a soldier to that of a pupil might be a troublesome one for some folks, and that the college wanted to do extra to guard the security of all members of our group.”)
Franke’s Democracy Now! feedback turned the topic of a college investigation in addition to a broader congressional listening to associated to campus antisemitism. Consultant Elise Stefanik, a New York Republican, requested then–Columbia president Minouche Shafik what disciplinary motion had been taken in opposition to Franke. She characterised Franke as saying, “Israeli college students who’ve served within the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] are harmful and shouldn’t be on campus.”
Shafik didn’t reply Stefanik straightforwardly, however replied, “I agree with you that these feedback are utterly unacceptable and discriminatory.” Later throughout the televised listening to, Shafik confirmed that Franke was beneath investigation.
That investigation discovered that along with the interview feedback, Franke violated campus coverage by retaliating in opposition to the complainants.
A November 2024 Columbia EOAA Investigation Willpower letter to one of many complainants, which was supplied to Inside Increased Ed, says, “You additionally alleged retaliation on three separate events throughout the course of this investigation when complainant: (i) supplied your title to a reporter who publicized your identification as a person who initiated the criticism; (ii) reposted a tweet referring to you as a ‘genocide advocate’ and ‘McCarthyite bigot’; and (iii) posted a hyperlink to a doc on social media indicating that you just had made extra complaints in opposition to respondent.” (Franke had named the complainants—two of her school colleagues—to Inside Increased Ed for a July story.)
The letter says the college concluded that the interview and the primary two retaliation allegations violated the coverage.
In her assertion Friday, Franke stated she did attraction. However “upon reflection, it turned clear to me that Columbia had turn into such a hostile atmosphere that I may not function an lively member of the school.”
During the last 12 months, folks have posed as college students to secretly videotape her, and clips have ended up on “right-wing social media websites,” she stated. College students have enrolled in her courses to impress discussions they will file and complain about, she stated, including that regulation faculty colleagues have additionally secretly taped her and yelled “at me in entrance of scholars that I’m a Hamas supporter.”
“After President Shafik defamed me in Congress, I obtained a number of demise threats at my house,” Franke stated. “I commonly obtain emails that categorical the hope that I’m raped, murdered and in any other case assaulted on account of my assist of Palestinian rights.”
Columbia Regulation dean Daniel Abebe informed colleagues Thursday that Franke “is accelerating her deliberate retirement and now will retire from Columbia on Friday.” Abebe praised her work.
However Franke contests the phrase “retirement.” In an e-mail to Inside Increased Ed on Friday, Franke defined that she signed an settlement with Columbia a 12 months in the past “to retire in a number of years—phased in.” However she stated the college “reneged on” offering routine retirement advantages, akin to recommending her for emeritus standing with the college’s Board of Trustees, offering her an workplace for 5 years and nonetheless permitting her to show some courses.
“Columbia College’s management has demonstrated a willingness to collaborate with the very enemies of our tutorial mission,” Franke wrote in her assertion. “In a time when assaults on greater schooling are essentially the most acute because the McCarthyite assaults of the Nineteen Fifties, the college’s management and trustees have deserted any responsibility to guard the college’s most treasured sources: its school, college students and tutorial mission.”
The college didn’t present an interview Friday. In an emailed assertion, a Columbia spokesperson wrote, “Columbia is dedicated to being a group that’s welcoming to all and our insurance policies prohibit discrimination and harassment.”
“As made public by events on this matter, a criticism was filed alleging discriminatory harassment in violation of our insurance policies,” the assertion continued. “An investigation was carried out, and a discovering was issued. As we now have constantly acknowledged, the college is dedicated to addressing all types of discrimination according to our insurance policies.”
