The Economist, March 4, 2024

“Plenty of faculty—both at Harvard and at other elite universities that have recently seen their reputations trashed—insist that hard-right Republicans and other rabble-rousers are fabricating controversies. Stirring up animosity towards pointy-headed elites can win them political advantage. But thoughtful insiders acknowledge that, for some years, elite universities, particularly those within the Ivy League, have grown dangerously detached from ordinary Americans, not to mention unmoored from their own academic and meritocratic values.

In theory, these difficulties could promote efforts to correct flaws that are holding back elite education in America. But it could also entrench them. “America’s great universities are losing the public’s trust,” warns Robert George, a legal scholar and philosopher at Princeton. “And it is not the public’s fault.”

The New York Times, February 16, 2024

“At Columbia, leaders of the Columbia Academic Freedom Council, a faculty group formed last month, emphasize in an interview that they were not a right-wing or a left-wing group. “We want to occupy the center,” said James Applegate, an astrophysicist.”

Chronicle of Higher Education, February 8, 2024

“Amid a polarized political climate and debates about the war in Gaza and hot-button social issues like abortion rights, university leaders’ statements about current events have attracted attention and scrutiny. A small but growing number of institutions are responding to the pressure by swearing off such statements altogether.”

Columbia Spectator, January 18, 2024

The council’s “Statement of Responsibilities”—named “in recognition of our faculty’s need to assume them,” according to the council’s website—outlines six responsibilities: to “protect academic freedom,” “uphold tolerance and respect,” “encourage civil discourse,” and maintain “institutional neutrality,” “external awareness,” and “responsibility to the institution.”

Office of the President, January 18, 2024

“She served on the Committee on Freedom of Expression that developed the “Chicago Principles” in 2014.”

Office of the President, January 17, 2024

“Access to diverse perspectives will be a fundamental aspect of our identity and we will build resilience to intellectual discomfort and challenge.”

New York Times, December 28, 2023

“While she is known for her support of diversity initiatives, Dr. Shafik’s views on politics — and the way her personal experiences may have influenced them — can be hard to decipher. Mr. Mendelson said that as Columbia scrutinized her before she became president, the search committee was impressed that she had been “meticulously nonpartisan” in her previous job.

“One couldn’t figure out her personal views because she wanted that evenness on campus,” he said. “That’s one of the key reasons I was supportive of her candidacy for president.”

Office of the President, December 20, 2023

“We want everyone to be able to engage with differing perspectives and to navigate the discomfort that comes with that. Our differences should be a source of strength, a critical part of what makes university communities like ours excel as incubators of knowledge and innovation.”