Columbia President Minouche Shafik and Barnard President Laura Rosenbury announced the formation of a Doxing Resource Group composed of offices at Columbia and Barnard, which will serve as a “point of contact for issues related to doxing, harassment, and online security.”

This afternoon, Presidents Shafik and Rosenbury sent an email to students which announced the formation of a Columbia-Barnard Doxing Resource Group (DRG). In their announcement, Shafik and Rosenbury specifically referred to recent on-campus incidents “in which trucks have circled the Columbia campus displaying and publicizing the names and photos of Arab, Muslim, and Palestinian students.” The email called doxing “unacceptable” and “a dangerous form of intimidation” and came hours after the presidents announced a new Task Force on Antisemitism.  The full text of the announcement can be read below. 

The DRG will serve as a “central point of contact” for doxing and related issues, consolidating support from offices including University Life, Barnard Campus Life and Student Experience, Columbia University and Barnard Information Technology, the Columbia Department of Public Safety, Barnard CARES Community Safety, the SIPA Task Force on Doxing and Student Safety, among other offices. The statement also said that Columbia and Barnard had obtained digital threat investigation and privacy scrubbing experts to support impacted affiliates. 

The group will operate until November 30, at which point the university will “reassess its efforts” in responding to doxing and harassment. Students can reach out to the group by emailing DRG@columbia.edu. 

The aforementioned “doxing trucks” first appeared around campus on October 25, prior to the start of an on-campus demonstration jointly organized by Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Columbia/Barnard Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) as part of the National Walkout for Gaza. Accuracy in Media (AIM), a conservative watchdog organization, took responsibility for these trucks, which bore names and faces of affiliates under the words “Columbia’s Leading Antisemites.” 

The trucks’ targets included members of the CU Muslim Students Association, Conflict Resolution Collective, SIPA’s Palestine Working Group, and SIPA’s Human Rights Working Group. AIM alleged that these organizations signed an open letter that condemned Barnard and General Studies for emails sent in response to the violence in Israel and Gaza. The letter claimed these communications “only addressed Israeli students alone, and not Palestinians,” and further called for discontinuing the Columbia Global Center in Tel Aviv and the Dual Degree Program with Tel Aviv University. 

The letter’s list of signatories has since been removed due to doxing and harassment concerns. Additionally, new text has been appended to call for “immediate action to legally and publicly support the Muslim and POC students at Columbia who have fallen victim to doxxing and have been unjustly placed on terror watchlists.”

Email from Columbia President Minouche Shafik and Barnard President Laura Rosenbury to students at 5:09 pm on Wednesday, November 1: 

Dear fellow members of the Columbia and Barnard communities,

The deliberate harassment and targeting of members of our community by doxing, a dangerous form of intimidation, is unacceptable. Many individuals, including students across several schools, have been subject to these attacks by third parties. This includes disturbing incidents in which trucks have circled the Columbia campus displaying and publicizing the names and photos of Arab, Muslim, and Palestinian students.

We are grateful for the persistence and perseverance of the students, and their families, in the face of this harassment. We are assembling available resources to support them and the staff and faculty who are by their side.

To streamline support for the members of our community who are the targets of doxing, Columbia and Barnard together are establishing a Doxing Resource Group composed of key offices across both campuses that are focused on the issue. This group will serve as a centralized point of contact for issues related to doxing, harassment, and online security.

The resource group will work in close partnership with colleagues around Columbia and Barnard, including from the offices of University Life, Barnard Campus Life and Student Experience, Columbia University and Barnard Information Technology, the Columbia Department of Public Safety, Barnard CARES Community Safety, the Offices of General Counsel, the Offices of the Provost, Barnard Office of Inclusion and Engaged Learning, and student affairs leaders from across the university. The group will also coordinate with the recently announced SIPA Task Force on Doxing and Student Safety.

These offices have already been working closely and frequently to support students these past three weeks. Now, we are establishing a single point of contact instead of navigating multiple offices.

In addition, Columbia and Barnard have retained experts in the field of digital threat investigation and privacy scrubbing to support our impacted community members.

The special resource group on doxing will:

• Serve as one point of contact for all issues related to doxing, harassment, and online security.
• Communicate proactively with students to help navigate the resources available to them.
• Make referrals where necessary and ensure coordination of services.
• Hear concerns and receive suggestions for additional support.

The special resources group will be in operation through November 30, at which point we will reassess our efforts to ensure that our work meets your needs. The staff coordinating the resource group will reach out to affected students soon. To reach out to the group leadership, please email DRG@columbia.edu.

Sincerely,

Minouche Shafik

President, Columbia University in the City of New York

Laura Ann Rosenbury

President, Barnard College