Recall last October’s allegation that the chair of Barnard’s Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures, Rachel McDermott, “steered” a Jewish Barnard student away from taking one of Columbia Professor Joseph Massad‘s classes lest his reportedly pro-Palestinian slant make her “uncomfortable.” The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) began an investigation in response to a complaint from Kenneth Marcus of the Institute for Jewish and Community Research, who is connected to both the OCR and the US Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR). In 2006 USCCR investigated Columbia for antisemitism, and maintains a page devoted to receive antisemitism complaints.

Earlier this week, OCR dropped the investigation. In a letter to President of Barnard Debora Spar, the OCR noted that neither the complainant, nor the student, nor the OCR could find evidence contradicting McDermott’s denial of steering. Read more…

The Barnard Orthodox Jewish student who was allegedly “steered” from taking Joseph Massad’s class because of the professor’s anti-Israel views, has given her first interview. The article for Tablet, written by David Fine, CC’13, reveals that the student wanted to take the class with Massad, despite his reputation, but was still “steered” away by her major advisor, Barnard Professor Rachel McDermott.

“I went to her to speak about the major and talk to her about classes that I was looking at,” the student, who asked not to be named, said of a January, 2011 meeting in which she sought advice from McDermott, the longtime chair of the Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures Department at Barnard. “I mentioned a course taught by Joseph Massad.”

“Oh, he’s very anti-Israel,” McDermott responded, according to the student. “And I said, ‘That’s fine, I’ve heard anti-Israel things before, and I’m fine if it’s a culture clash.’”

But McDermott insisted Massad’s course would make the student “uncomfortable,” the student said in the interview. In the end, the student, then a sophomore, took the Jewish history class instead.

If the student’s story is true, it appears that she was steered away from taking the class not because she disagreed with the professor on an academic or political level, but because of her religious and ethnic identity. The situation seems to have more in common with an advisor telling a student “don’t take this class because you’re black and the professor hates blacks” (which is illegal) than with an advisor telling a student, “don’t take this class because you don’t like math and the professor uses a lot of math,” (which is fine).

The article also explains exactly how the January steering incident culminated in an official inquiry by the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, who confirmed to Tablet that they’re currently “investigating a complaint alleging Columbia University discriminated against a student of Jewish ancestry/ethnicity on the basis of national origin.”

…she [the student] wasn’t much surprised by McDermott’s advice until last May. That month, she met Peter Haas, a professor of Jewish studies at Case Western University and president of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, a network of pro-Israel academics and professors, and told him about what happened. Another member of the pro-Israel professors’ network, Judith Jacobson, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia’s School of Public Health, followed up by calling the student. Jacobson wanted to know if the student was interested in talking to Kenneth L. Marcus, the group’s legal adviser. The student agreed.

McDermott stepped down as chair of the Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures Department in September. She has declined to comment for Bwog or any other media organization.

“It’s possible Morningside Heights has found its annual autumn incident,” writes Marc Tracy in Tablet, an online magazine of Jewish news. According to his article published earlier today, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) will investigate a complaint that the chair of Barnard’s Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures ”steered” a Jewish Barnard student away from taking one of Columbia MESAAS Professor Joseph Massad‘s classes because his pro-Palestinian leanings may have made the student feel “uncomfortable.” Tablet notes that Professor Massad has been criticized before, most notably in the 2004 film Columbia Unbecoming, for “cultivating classrooms hostile to pro-Israel voices.” A subsequent internal investigation at Columbia cleared Professor Massad of all allegations, and, after an initial rejection, he was granted tenure in 2007.

Kenneth Marcus, President of the Institute for Jewish and Community Research (IJCR) and former head of the OCR during the Bush administration, brought the complaint to the Department of Ed. He has also served on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR), a committee that advises OCR and investigated Columbia for antisemitism in 2006 (go to page 58). It looks like investigating accusations of anti-semitism on college campuses is a top priority for USCCR; they even maintain a special website to report anti-semitism.

Although Marcus brought the incident to the attention of the feds, he didn’t discover it on his own. According to Tablet, Judith Jacobson, a professor at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health and co-founder of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, a group of American academics committed to fighting anti-semitism and anti-Israel bias on college campuses, informed Marcus of the alleged “steering.” Professor Jacobson strongly opposed awarding tenure to Massad and later to Barnard Anthropology Professor Nadia Abu el-Haj, whose work on Israeli anthropology some scholars viewed as too critical of Israel.

Columbia claims Massad isn’t involved in the steering story. A spokesman for the University told Tablet, “It is important to note that the individual complaint appears to relate to academic advising at Barnard College and in no way involves Professor Joseph Massad.” But that’s not how Marcus sees it. His complaint may concern a department head’s “steering,” but the root of his problem is with, as Tablet puts it, “Columbia’s alleged failure to address the perception that Massad’s classes might make Jewish students unduly uncomfortable.” In an IJRC press release, Marcus writes, “if there is a problem in Prof. Massad’s classroom, as the Barnard chair may believe then steering Jewish students away is not the solution…the big question is whether Massad is violating students’ rights too.”

Marcus told Tablet he eagerly anticipates the Department of Ed’s investigation, and in the event that they find Columbia classes are hostile environments for Jewish students, professors involved “need to be dealt with.” Columbia has a historically flourishing Jewish community. According to a survey by Reform Jewish Magazine, Barnard currently ranks third in the country for highest percentage of Jewish students with 43.5%, and Columbia comes in close behind at 25%. Given the tireless commitment that OCR and USCCR have shown to thoroughly investigating accusations of anti-semitism on college campuses, it seems Columbia will have to take these accusations very seriously.
Click here for responses from administrators and student groups

And we’re gonna let you finish, but…

New York City has some of the highest unemployment of all time. (NYT)

We’ve also got some of the lowest homicide rates of all time. (AP)

Columbia’s Joseph Massad has one of the most protested tenures of all time. (Manhattan Institute)

The new swine flu nasal spray is one of the speediest vaccinations of all time. (NYT)

Street food vendors have some of the scariest beef of all time. (Gothamist)

Columbia’s old Rembrandt is one of the most expensive paintings of all time. (TimesOnline)

Butler’s own James Franco wields one of the biggest flamethrowers of all time. (BestWeekEver)

The “will-she-or-won’t-she?” over Emma Watson’s possible matriculation at Columbia continues, much to our tipsters’ agony. Last week, co-star Daniel Radcliffe appeared to let the secret out when he told the Guardian “she’s going to Brown!” However, other gossip blogs, despite access to Google News, continue to assert that she will be coming to New York rather than Providence, including WENN.com and, uh, Perez Hilton. Since an official announcement has to come soon (and since her co-star is a bit more reliable than a doodling hack), this might be our only chance to use our special logo (which is purposefully in no way over-the-top).

Some alumni are registering their displeasure over Joseph Massad’s new tenure appointment…to the New York Post, of course.

The man arrested for defrauding Columbia of almost $200,000 — and later tried to claim sexual harassment as an excuse — was sentenced to fifteen months in prison.

Finally, the Wall Street Journal shares the heartwarming tale of a journalism school student/Iraq War veteran, Luis Montalvan, and his psychiatric help dog. Save it for a rainy day.

- Logo by JYH

In April, we reported that rumors both on campus and in print were suggesting that Professor Joseph Massad would soon be granted tenure. Now, everyone’s favorite tabloid/monitor-of-all-Columbia-controversies, the New York Post, reports (via HuffPo) that Massad has been granted tenure.  In an article neutrally-entitled “Columbia Tenures An Israel Basher,” columnist Jacob Gershman writes that Columbia “officially — if quietly — awarded Massad tenure earlier this month.”

Gershman then runs through the many controversies that Massad has been involved in in his time in Morningside, before adding two new plot points. First, he calls Dean of Arts and Sciences Nicholas Dirks a “key ally” for Massad in getting an uncommon–though not unheard of–second tenure review. Second, Gershman alleges that “President Lee Bollinger and Provost Alan Brinkley took extraordinary measures to protect the secrecy of Massad’s tenure case and guard against an outcry from Jewish alumni and donors,” including shielding the names of tenure committee members from the Board of Trustees.

University spokesman Robert Hornsby did not comment to Bwog, citing the “longstanding policy” of no comment on tenure cases. While no complaints at the faculty level have made their way back to Bwog’s ears (yet), several MEALAC students told Bwog in April that, contrary to Massad’s first tenure review, far fewer details were leaking about the tenure process, and there appear to be fewer leaks to the media as well. Whatever makes the faculty happy.

- JCD

Last May, rumors circulated that controversial Professor Joseph Massad was up for a second round of tenure review, after having been denied tenure six months earlier. Now, word is spreading both on campus and in media outlets that Massad has been granted tenure.

Massad, who is in Egypt this semester, did not respond to an email request for comment (although this CSU-Stanislaus professor claims Massad’s already heard the news), and University spokesman Robert Hornsby told Bwog, “it is our longstanding policy not to comment on any tenure case.” But even when they do comment, the news will probably go unnoticed, and the internet will move on…or not.

- JCD

As you may have heard, there’s a bit of a to-do in Gaza right now. Being an utterly uncontroversial source for Israel-Palestine conflict analysis, Columbia hasn’t been able to keep its name out of the media, with several professors offering their thoughts on the latest clash. Some samples:

• Just before the start of the conflict, Yinon Cohen co-authored an editorial advocating for a new push on the two-state solution.
• Joseph Massad, in Gulf News (an English-language daily published in Dubai) “The lesson that Zionism has refused to learn, and still refuses to learn, is that the Palestinian yearning for freedom from the Zionist yoke cannot be extinguished no matter how barbaric Israel’s crimes become.”
• Massad also compared Gaza in 2009 to the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
• Old McCain-Palin target Rashid Khalidi has been busy as well: telling everyone in today’s Times “What You Don’t Know About Gaza,” and declaring the failure of the Israeli assault in Newsday and on NPR
• And finally, GS Dean and Middle East Institute director Peter Awn talked to the Wall Street Journal about “What Could Happen to Gaza After War?“

Bwog of course takes no position on the conflict, but, given that students held a vigil for Gaza when there wasn’t a full scale invasion going on, we suspect it might become a flashpoint when school resumes. Call it a hunch. (Photo by the Associated Press)

As one commenter pointed out, this week’s New York Magazine Daily Intelligencer section features a short piece that references an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education that speculates that Joseph Massad might be up for a second round of tenure review. Both the New York piece and the Chronicle piece have no on-the-record information to indicate such, though Columbia PR director cryptically explained that “it is consistent with our review process that cases sometimes extend beyond a single academic year or committee.” In addition, the Chronicle piece quotes Cary Nelson, president of the American Association of University Professors, as saying “that while it is ‘highly unusual’ for a university to establish a second ad hoc review committee, ‘it seems to me a good thing in this case, if questions have been raised about the decision making.’”

According to the Chronicle article — which is only able to be read with a subscription but was luckily forwarded to Bwog in full by tipster David Judd — “[Alan Brinkley's] decision [to deny Massad tenure] followed what professors describe as a narrow [3-2] vote in favor of Mr. Massad by an ad hoc committee of five scholars who judged his tenure file. When the provost subsequently rejected the bid, professors say, the decision prompted an angry letter from senior faculty members at Columbia who support Mr. Massad. They apparently have persuaded the provost to reconsider the case and give the professor the unusual opportunity of a second chance at tenure at Columbia.”

Despite previous statements to the contrary, the Academic Affairs Committee has invited the entirety of Columbia College to tonight’s Academic Awards Ceremony. The ceremony will honor Lionel Trilling and Mark van Doren Award winners, Joseph Massad and Andrew Nathan, respectively. 

The reception starts tonight in Low at 6 PM with the ceremony to follow. We’re assuming the earlier proclamation of a “business-smart” dress code still applies.

For those of you stuck in Butler (or those who only have “casual-smart” or “business-mildly intelligent” wardrobes), check back for Bwog’s coverage of the event.

The winners of the 2008 Lionel Trilling and Mark van Doren Awards have been announced. As Bwog reported earlier, Associate Professor Joseph Massad has been awarded the former, while Andrew Nathan, Political Science Department Chairman, has been awarded the latter for his “humanity, devotion to truth, and and inspiring leadership,” according to the press release. 

The ceremony will be held on Wednesday, May 7th in Low. As all political science undergrads received an email with instructions to RSVP, Bwog believes the event is probably open to the rest of the student body as well. Interested parties can RSVP to academicawards@gmail.com.

According to Ian Corey-Boulet, the co-chair of the CC Academic Awards Committee, “For space reasons, the event is open to faculty from the political science and MEALAC departments (as well as all department chairs), various members of the University administration, political science and MEALAC majors, and the winners’ friends and family.” Also, if you fall into any of these categories and plan on attending the ceremony, according to the AAC press release, the dress code is “business-smart.”

Today Associate Professor Joseph Massad‘s Desiring Arabs has been awarded the 2008 Lionel Trilling Award, according an email sent to the MEALAC listserv. The award is given each year to honor the book authored by a Columbia faculty member “that is deemed to best exhibit the standards of intellect and scholarship found in Lionel Trilling’s work,” the prize’s website says.

Desiring Arabs is an intellectual history of the last 200 years of the Arabic world that focuses on Arab sexuality and Western interpretations of Arab sexuality. Massad—as well as the book itself—has been the at the center of much heated Middle Eastern controversy over the last four years. Massad was also one of the subjects criticized by the David Project-funded documentary Columbia Unbecoming.

Winners of the Trilling Award—as well as the Mark Van Doren Award—are selected by the Columbia College Student Council and the Academic Awards Committee. A Bwog tipster with a friend involved in the latter explains that AACers have been told to remain mum, so other than the fluke MEALAC email, there have been no announcements about the winner.

According to the Columbia College website, the awards ceremony will be held on May 8th (although half the dates on the website say “2007″ and the others say “2008″, this year, May 8th is on a Thursday.)

- JNW

Of 70 Columbia professors, expressed to the New York Sun! Some of them rather prominent! A faculty action committee statement of concern  accuses PrezBo of failing “to make a vigorous defense of the core principles on which the university is founded, especially academic freedom.” Particularly rankling to signatories–which include such luminaries as Akeel Bilgrami, Bruce Robbins, Mahmood Mamdani, Gayatri Spivak, Eric Foner, and former Provost Jonathan Cole, as well as predictable lightning rods like Nadia Abu al-Haj and Nick DeGenova–is the impact of outside groups on tenure and other “academic freedom” issues. The New York Sun suggests (albeit very implicitly) that this could be the early stages of the kind of faculty ouster that cost Lawrence Summers his job; meanwhile, the professors plan on presenting their grievances tomorrow at a meeting of the Arts and Sciences faculty.

Conspiracy theorists will note a number of carefully worded references to recent events in the professors’ statement: “Tenure, “the hosting of controversial speakers,” “villifying members of faculty,” “partisan political positions concerning the politics of the Middle East”…this thing could be read as the culmination of faculty discontent with Low Library’s handling of the MEALAC controversy, the al-Haj tenure debate, the Ahmadinejad introduction, and Islamofascism awareness week.

But one conspiracy theorist has gone a step further: according to the mysterious “Emmett Trueman,” who has been flooding publicaton inboxes with “inside information” about this year’s tenure battles, an ad hoc committee has recommended that Professor Joseph Massad be denied tenure (which New Republic resident codger Marty Peretz called a few weeks ago), and the letter is an attempt by the MEALAC faculty to persuade the administration to overturn the recommendation. Also worth noting: at a panel tonight lauding Massad’s Desiring Arabs, hosted by the Heyman Institute, the professor noted that he was “personally grateful for this intervention.”

According to The Spine, a blog written by New Republic editor Marty Perez, Joseph Massad has been denied tenure. There’s no other source on the story so far and no official word on the reasons behind the decision, but Gil Ronen of Israel National news claimed yesterday that the decision to make Nadia El-Haj a tenured professor was part of an internal deal in which Massad’s tenure would be turned down.

On Friday, lecture hopper extraordinaire Josh Mathew took the walk down to St. Mary‘s Episcopal church in Harlem to hear two scholars duke it out on the question of Israel and Palestine.

After making my way past the numerous activists handing out fliers condemning the war in Iraq and the U.S.’s conceivable Iranian escapades, I grabbed a seat in one of the old wooden pews of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church on 126th in Harlem.

After recognizing a few familiar faces amongst this unusual congregation, I saw sitting up at the altar Dr. Joseph Massad, Associate Professor of Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History at Columbia University, and his cospeaker Dr. Tanya Reinhart, Professor of Linguistics at Tel Aviv University and the University of Utrecht.

Massad and Reinhart’s co-lecture “Channeling Israeli Apartheid” capped off Israel Apartheid Week’s series of lectures, which focused on topics like divestment, marriage laws, and the media.

Although Massad’s lecture began with an acknowledgment of Israel’s “substantive and psychological” desire for peace, he soon added that Israel has simply requested that the world recognize its “right to be a racist state.” Followed by a round of laughter, the phrase became the central rhetorical device of Massad’s speech, serving as the semi-sarcastic tagline to many of his sentences. Massad criticized all existing solutions proposed to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as having accepted Israel’s racist nature, racist laws, and system of apartheid. For example, after the 1993 Oslo Accords, the late President of the Palestinian National Authority Yasser Arafat recognized Israel’s “need to be a racist,” and following Arafat’s death, his successor Mahmoud Abbas has also been persuaded to recognize this “right to be racist.” In his conclusion, Massad, rejecting the proposed two-state plan, and recommended a “decolonized, binational state” as the only acceptable solution. Read more…