Dive Brief:
- The three deans at the center of Columbia University’s texting scandal have resigned, a university spokesperson confirmed Friday.
- In July, Columbia stripped the three employees of their titles after it launched an investigation into text messages sent during a May 31 panel on the experiences of Jewish students. At the time, Columbia President Minouche Shafik said the texts were “very troubling” and “touched on ancient antisemitic tropes.”
- The administrators had remained on leave after losing their titles. The Columbia spokesperson did not say when the deans submitted their resignations or when their last days were.
Dive Insight:
Columbia has become an oft-cited example of student protest in response to the Israel-Hamas war. Amid rampant campus demonstrations, the university switched to remote learning for the last chunk of the spring semester and called on police to arrest protesters for the first time in decades.
Portions of the May text exchanges among the deans became public after a panel attendee shared photos of them taken over the shoulder of Susan Chang-Kim, Columbia’s then-vice dean and chief administrative officer. North Carolina Rep. Virginia Foxx, a Republican who chairs the House education committee, published the texts in their entirety after demanding Columbia turn them over.
Columbia did not name the staff members when announcing their removal from their posts.
However, the text messages included four participants: Chang-Kim, Matthew Patashnick, then-associate dean for student and family support; Cristen Kromm, then-dean of undergraduate student life; and Josef Sorett, the dean of Columbia College.
In a May 31 group text with Kromm and Patashnick, Chang-Kim said comments made during the panel came “from such a place of privilege.”
The panel included David Schizer, dean emeritus and law and economics professor at Columbia; Brian Cohen, executive director of Columbia’s Hillel center; Ian Rottenberg, dean of religious life at Columbia; and Rebecca Massel, a deputy news editor of the Columbia Daily Spectator, the university’s student newspaper.
“Hard to hear the woe is me, we need to huddle at the Kraft center,” Chang-Kim wrote, referring to the Jewish student center that houses Columbia’s Hillel.
Kromm made similar complaints, criticizing panelists’ comments for ignoring a lack of community space for Jewish students who don’t support Israel. Hillel International — the parent organization of many of the country’s Jewish student centers on college campuses — strongly supports Israel.
Patashnick texted that one of the panelists knew “exactly what he’s doing and how to take full advantage of this moment.” It’s unclear to which participant he was referring.
“Huge fundraising potential,” Patashnick wrote.
In a direct message to Sorett, Chang-Kim texted that “this is difficult to listen to but I’m trying to keep an open mind to learn about this point of view.”
“Yup,” Sorett responded.
Shafik decried the texts in July.
“Whether intended as such or not, these sentiments are unacceptable and deeply upsetting, conveying a lack of seriousness about the concerns and the experiences of members of our Jewish community,” Shafik said.
She also announced forthcoming training programs on antisemitism and antidiscrimination for employees and students.
Columbia did not place Sorett — the most senior employee of the group and the one who texted the least in the exchanges that were made public — on leave and indicated in July that he would stay in his role.
The Columbia spokesperson Friday did not answer questions about Sorett’s future with the university.
Foxx suggested the departures of Chang-Kim, Kromm and Patashnick were overdue but insufficient.
“Actions have consequences, and Columbia should have fired all four of these deans months ago,” she said in a Thursday statement. “Instead, the University continues to send mixed signals, letting Columbia College Dean Josef Sorett, the highest-ranking administrator involved, slide under the radar with no real consequences.”
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