Statements, EVents, campaigns

For an Independent University Senate

Since its inception in 1969, the Columbia University Senate has robustly represented faculty, students, staff, and alumni in shared governance. Its spirit and purpose are democratic. Autonomy remains its cornerstone.

Among the Senate’s responsibilities are to “work for the advancement of academic freedom and the protection of faculty interests” and to “work for the promotion of student welfare and the enhancement of student life.” Its standing as an independent body ensures these responsibilities are met with maximum integrity. Any erosion of that independence, whether by interference in customary procedures for setting Senate policy and addressing community concerns, or by the amplification of voices external to the University, threatens both academic freedom and student welfare. 

The Rights of Faculty:

In Defense of Academic Freedom

Our chapter has received numerous and troubling reports of politicians, journalists, professors, administrators, and students calling for particular Columbia faculty to be dismissed or filing grievances that could result in their dismissal. These calls for punitive action have most often been based on statements made by these faculty members in the public sphere. Others have been based on classroom speech. Grievances have also been filed in response to faculty efforts to de-escalate provocations during campus protests. 

Claims of intimidation and harassment must be addressed carefully and transparently, with due process for all. Such claims must be stringently distinguished from the exercise of academic freedom through the expression of ideas that some may find disturbing or disagreeable.

Dangerous Precedents: 

On Recent Actions by the Columbia Task Force on Antisemitism

On June 16th, the chairs of Columbia's Task Force on Antisemitism announced the broad outlines of their forthcoming report in an interview given to Haaretz, the Israeli daily. While to our knowledge the report has not yet been officially submitted, the remarks made to Haaretz by the Task Force chairs lead the Columbia AAUP chapter to call on President Shafik, before accepting and implementing any of the Task Force recommendations, to submit the report in its entirely to the University community for rigorous debate by its various faculties and governance bodies. Informed debate of this nature is fundamental to the principles of academic freedom and shared governance to which the University is committed.

A Joint Press Release on the No-Confidence Votes at Barnard and Columbia

On April 30, 2024, 77 percent of the faculty of Barnard College voted no confidence in President Laura Rosenbury. This week, the Columbia University Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted no confidence in President Nemat Shafik with a 65 percent majority. These motions insist on the vital need for shared governance and due process and call for resistance against external influences over our university community.

These unprecedented votes by faculty at Columbia and Barnard speak against what the AAUP nationally has termed a “politically motivated assault on higher education.” Peaceful protests and debate among our students are being weaponized to undermine the independence and integrity of educational institutions. Politicians are undemocratically interfering in curriculum, the hiring and retention of faculty, disciplinary practices, and university governance. The AAUP leads in resisting these attacks and in defending the principles that shape America’s universities.

Columbia Arts & Sciences Faculty Agree to a No-Confidence Vote in President Shafik

At the May 8, 2024 meeting of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences, a motion of no confidence in President Shafik was advanced to a vote. 

This unprecedented act marks the first step in holding the University administration accountable for events over the last eight months, and especially over the last three weeks.

AAUP Columbia Calls for a Vote of No Confidence in the University Administration 

The choice of Columbia’s administrators to ignore University statutes and customary practices honored over the past six decades, to have our students violently arrested, and to impose a militarized lockdown of our campus, has irrevocably undermined our trust in them. 

We therefore call upon the University Senate and the representative faculty bodies of individual schools to pass a vote of no confidence in President Shafik, the Co-Chairs of the Board of Trustees, and the COO. We also demand that the campus be immediately reopened to faculty, staff, and students and that the NYPD be withdrawn at once. 

A vote of no confidence in the President and her administration is the only way to begin rebuilding our shattered community and re-establishing the University's core values of free speech, the right to peaceful assembly, and shared governance. 

Statement on Political Interference in the Functioning of the University

Following the press conference by the Speaker of the House on the steps of Low Library on April 24, 2024, the Columbia Chapter issued a statement condemning interference by members of Congress in our governance.

Resolution of Censure of President Shafik, her Administration, and the Co-chairs of the Board of Trustees

Following the events of April 17 and 18, 2024, the Barnard and Columbia Chapters have prepared a resolution for consideration by the University Senate that calls for the censure of President Nemat Shafik, the General Counsel, the Chief Operating Officer, and the Co-Chairs of the Board of Trustees. President Shafik’s violation of the fundamental requirements of academic freedom and shared governance, and her unprecedented assault on students’ rights, warrants unequivocal and emphatic condemnation.

Declaration by the Barnard and Columbia AAUP Chapters

Following the mass emergency meeting of the faculty held on Friday, April 19, 2024, the Barnard and Columbia Chapters of the American Association of University Professors have distributed a statement condemning the arrest of more than 100 students peacefully protesting on campus. 

Joint Letter from the Barnard and Columbia AAUP Chapters

On April 19, 2024, the Barnard and Columbia Chapters sent the attached letter addressing the testimony to Congress of President Shafik, the co-chairs of the Board of Trustees, and one of the co-chairs of the Task Force on Antisemitism, as well as the April 18 arrest of 100+ protesters on Columbia's campus.

Letter protesting the treatment of Dr. A. Kayum Ahmed

On March 29, 2024, the Executive Committee sent the attached letter regarding the teaching duties of Dr. A. Kayum Ahmed, assistant professor in the Mailman School of Public Health.

Academic Freedom and Free Speech: Definitions, Threats and Responses

On March 27, 2024, we hosted a virtual roundtable featuring the following four speakers:

• Hank Reichman, Professor Emeritus of History, California State University-East Bay; Former Chair, AAUP Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure

• Isaac Kamola, Associate Professor of Political Science, Trinity College, Hartford, CT, and President, AAUP Trinity chapter

• Joe Howley, Associate Professor of Classics; Member, Columbia University Senate Committee on Faculty Affairs, Academic Freedom, and Tenure

• Janet Jakobsen, Claire Tow Professor of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Barnard College

Statement on Academic Freedom

In response to an extensive list of violations of academic freedom at Columbia, the Executive Committee composed this statement calling on administrators to declare:

1. A rollback of any policy imposed since October 7, 2023 without appropriate faculty consultation, such as the Barnard “Campus Events and Approval Policy” of November 2 and “Political Activity Policy” of November 13; 

2. A full acceptance of the Senate recommendations specifically for revisions to the University Event policy (pp. 25-26) adopted at the December 8, 2023 plenary session of the University Senate;  

3. A renewed adherence to the Rules of University Conduct that have governed Columbia for the past half-century; 

4. A reaffirmation of the primacy of shared governance as enshrined in Senate norms;  

5. A recommitment to AAUP’s foundational principles on academic freedom: the freedom “of a teacher or researcher in higher education to investigate and discuss the issues in his or her academic field, and to teach or publish findings without interference from political figures, boards of trustees, donors, or other entities.”

Letter Registering Our Concern at Recent Responses to Student Protests

On November 15, 2023, the Executive Committee sent the attached letter to President Shafik, Interim Provost Dennis Mitchell, Senior Executive Vice President Gerald Rosberg, Chair of the Policy and Planning Committee Matthew Hart, and Chair of the University Senate Executive Committee Jeanine D'Armiento objecting to the administration's recent handling of student protests, which violate multiple rules and statutes of the University that have been in effect for 45 years, ever since they were enacted to avoid repeating the administration’s stifling of student/faculty activism and speech during the 1968 protests.

Letter in Support of Dr. A. Kayum Ahmed

On October 23, 2023, the Executive Committee sent the attached letter to President Shafik, Interim Provost Dennis Mitchell, Dean of the Mailman School Linda Fried, and Interim Chair of the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health, Patrick Kachur, protesting the treatment of Dr. A. Kayum Ahmed, an assistant professor in that department, as he organized an event on October 23, 2023, entitled "on Palestine, Epistemic Coloniality, and the University." Dr. Ahmed's academic freedom was clearly violated during this process.

Letter in Support of CPW-UAW to Interim Provost Dennis Mitchell

On October 20, 2023, the Executive Committee sent the attached letter to interim Provost Dennis Mitchell expressing our concern about the University's inability to negotiate a satisfactory contract with CPW-UAW, the union that represents postdoctoral scholars at Columbia.

Letter to New Columbia President Minouche Shafik

On October 10, 2023, the Executive Committee sent the attached letter introducing the Columbia chapter, asking for a meeting, and outlining three issues we feel President Shafik should address ASAP:

1. She should push for the reinstatement of the Committee on Admissions and Financial Aid, a critical piece of faculty governance in the undergraduate schools;

2. She should take steps to improve institutional transparency;

3. She should reverse COVID-related benefits cuts. 

Funding a Financial Analysis of Columbia University

Over the past few years, Howard Bunsis, an institutional finance expert and professor of accounting at Eastern Michigan University, has examined the publicly available financial data for several universities, including Portland State, Johns Hopkins, and Rutgers. This has allowed faculty and staff at these institutions to contradict claims of institutional poverty and highlight management bloat. 

We thought Columbia was overdue for such an analysis. With our friends at the CPW-UAW, the union for postdoctoral researchers at Columbia, we secured Howard's services to conduct a financial analysis of the university. The results of this analysis are available here. 

On May 2, 2023, Howard Bunsis presented the results of his financial analysis of Columbia University. You can watch the recording of this meeting jointly organized by the Columbia AAUP chapter and the CPW-UAW.