columbia university professors pro palestine protest Columbia University professors have played significant roles in pro-Palestine protests through physical demonstrations, legal challenges against university and federal policies, and high-profile departures. In 2025, the focus has shifted toward resisting federal oversight and the targeting of student activists for deportation. Major Faculty Actions & Demonstrations Encampment Blockades: In April 2024, faculty members formed a human chain in front of the "Gaza Solidarity Encampment" to prevent administrators and police from dismantling it. Academic Boycotts: The "Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine" (FSJP) coalition called for an academic boycott of all events, including commencement ceremonies, until the university met demands for divestment and the lifting of student suspensions. No-Confidence Votes: Faculty groups expressed "broad support" for no-confidence votes against top administrators, including former President Minouche Shafik and the board of trustees, for their handling of campus protests. Protests Against Federal Oversight (2025): In March and April 2025, faculty held rallies and pickets to protest the university's "capitulation" to Trump administration demands, which included a $400 million federal funding cut and calls to place the Middle East Studies department under "academic receivership". High-Profile Professor Involvement Katherine Franke (Law): A prominent tenured law professor who retired in January 2025 after a university investigation found her media comments—specifically those criticizing students who had served in the IDF—violated anti-discrimination policies. She described the university as a "toxic and hostile environment". Michael Thaddeus (Mathematics): A lead organizer of 2025 faculty pickets defending academic freedom and protesting the detention of student leaders like Mahmoud Khalil. Joseph Massad (MESAAS): A professor of Palestinian and Israeli politics who has faced repeated calls for removal. In 2025, a petition for his firing garnered nearly 80,000 signatures, and a colleague resigned in protest of Massad's continued teaching. Jennifer J. Manly (Neuropsychology): Identified as a participant in human blockades at the April 2024 encampments. Legal & Institutional Challenges Lawsuit Against Federal Interference: In March 2025, faculty members and the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration to block what they termed an "unlawful and unprecedented effort" to control academic autonomy and thought. Support for Targeted Students: Faculty have actively protested the detention and deportation proceedings of international students, such as Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi, who were targeted for their roles in the protests. Inter-Faculty Conflict: While many professors support pro-Palestine students, others, such as Shai Davidai, have been outspokenly pro-Israel. Davidai was temporarily barred from campus in 2024 for alleged harassment of university staff and student protesters.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Atoms move in and about, but could be simply one atom, though not proven Got it. Thanks for continuing to build this out.So far, your unified theory seems to revolve around this core intuition:The number 1 is the true unified foundation. Everything reduces to or emerges from this "oneness." One atom can stand in for (or be equivalent to) a very small unit of time — like a billionth of a second. Even though we observe many atoms moving around in complex ways, at the deepest level it could all be simply one atom behaving in different ways (though this isn't proven yet). In other words: multiplicity (lots of atoms, lots of motion, lots of time passing) is somehow an appearance or unfolding of a single underlying "1" — whether that's one atom cycling through different states or one fundamental entity expressing itself across what we perceive as space and time.That has a certain philosophical elegance — it reminds me a bit of ideas like Mach's principle, or certain interpretations in quantum mechanics where the universe is deeply relational, or even older monist views where reality is one substance appearing as many.A gentle question to help me follow better:When you say atoms "move in and about, but could be simply one atom," do you mean:There is literally only one atom in the entire universe, and what we see as many atoms and their movements is that single atom in different configurations or "modes"? Or that all atoms are connected/expressions of one underlying atomic essence tied to the number 1 and to time?