Hardly the first evidence of this but Columbia has gone completely ‘round the bend. They put three deans on suspension because some creep from the Free Beacon looked over their shoulders and saw them writing snarky texts?!? You do not take orders from these people!

This seems to be the MO of the right. My town actually passed an ordinance requiring you to announce that you’re recording people in any government building prior to doing so because the right kept setting up hidden cameras to try and get their gotcha moment and eventually published recordings… 1/2

I think a student took the photos. I'm no fan of the Free Beacon, but as long as the NYT verified the claims in the Free Beacon's reporting, I see no reason to minimize the potentially antisemitic intent of these texts merely due to outlet in which it was originally reported.

Imperfect analogy, but: If the Klan wrote to complain about a Black professor under my supervision, is there a chance the complaint is true? Sure. Am I going to act on it? Not on your life.

You do if Bill Ackman orders you to.

Maybe it's from years working in a regulated industry (where all written communication was archived and available to the regulator at any time), but it never ceases to amaze me what people will put down in email or text. If you wouldn't be fine with it being published in the NYT, don't write it.

Yeah you really don’t want to start down who to punish among academics for snark.

Seth this is really wrong. Their behavior was shockingly bigoted and they should probably be fired. They can't possibly be unbiased against Israeli Americans or anyone they perceive as adjacent to people they would dehumanize and smear like that.

It's time that we reformed higher ed starting with a mass purge of administration and a redistribution of funds towards academic staff. Except for business departments, they can go get fucked.

The one guy was punished for simply responding "yup"?

These are professionals sending snarky texts at work. Save the comments for later.