Campus Watch January 9, 2024

Alum Pulled Multi-Million Donation from UCLA Over Handling of Anti-Israel Encampment

KTLA published a report on Jan. 2 finding that a UCLA alumnus, who was not named in the article, rescinded their “multi-million dollar bequest” to UCLA over the university’s handling of the anti-Israel encampment.

KTLA unearthed that information as part of a public records request regarding emails from then-Chancellor Gene Block’s office during the time period of the encampment. The alumnus cited in the report wrote to the university on April 29, “We as donors have amended our Living Trust by removing UCLA as a financial recipient. UCLA has now lost our multi-million dollar bequest.” The report noted that “many correspondences concerned the decision to move classes to remote learning as the protests continued on campus. Just what decision-making was going on behind the scenes isn’t known — or wasn’t included in this batch of documents related to our public records request.”

Report Documents Columbia’s “Museum of Terror”

The Free Press documented a two-day event in November that a Jewish student at Columbia University described as a “museum of terror” at the Alpha Delta Phi — the university’s literary society — building.

The student, Shoshana Aufzien, told The Free Press that the event featured, among other things, “a pool table covered with tools, such as wrenches, hammers, ropes, and wire cutters — all of which were used by anti-Israel protesters to break in to and occupy Columbia’s Hamilton Hall last April.” Next to the tools were headbands adorned with the logo for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror group. There was also a poster showing a hang glider used by members of Hamas on the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre with the words, “on that day, the people of Gaza drifted into the sky like a host of colorful dragonflies.” The Free Press also obtained video from the event showing Nerdeen Kiswani, who heads the anti-Israel group Within Our Lifetime, saying that “as long as Israel exists, it’s a genocide against the Palestinian people” and that “a Zionist-free NYC is the only way that we can ensure that our universities don’t have the power to kick us out and silence us and to continue to fund Israeli genocide on our watch.” Alon Levin, a friend of Aufzien’s who also attended the event, told The Free Press he witnessed the Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) legal team lead “resistance training” to attendees on “how to covertly protest,” in the words of The Free Press.

Aufzien and Levin filed a complaint to the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights over the event. A university spokesperson told The Free Press: “This event took place off campus in a house independently owned and operated by a group known to Columbia as the Association of Graduates of the Columbia Chapter of ADP. Upon learning of the event, the University notified law enforcement, the national Alpha Delta Phi Society leadership and a representative of the owner of the ADP house. We immediately launched an investigation, which is ongoing. We will uphold our policies with respect to any actions by Columbia affiliates who violate them. As we have said repeatedly, it is absolutely unacceptable for any member of the Columbia community to call for, promote, or celebrate the use of terror or violence.”

AHA Members Pass Resolution Accusing Israel of “Scholasticide” in Gaza

Members of the American Historical Association (AHA) passed a resolution on Jan. 5 accusing Israel of committing “scholasticide” in the Gaza Strip in its ongoing war against Hamas.

According to InsideHigherEd, “scholasticide” is defined as “the intentional eradication of an education system.” The resolution accuses Israel of decimating education in Gaza and called for a ceasefire and for the AHA to form a committee aimed at rebuilding education in Gaza. The resolution passed by a vote of 428-88; per InsideHigherEd, it will go to “the association’s elected council, which can accept it, veto it or refuse to concur. That last option would send the resolution to the association’s roughly 10,450 members for a vote.” A majority vote is needed in order for it to pass in that scenario.

Kent State Prof Calls Oct. 7 Massacre “A Miracle”

A professor at Kent State University, who is also an imam, called the Oct. 7, 2023 “a miracle” in sermons.

Campus Reform reported that that the professor, Nader Taha, said in a December sermon that “in Al-Aqsa Flood [Hamas’s name for the Oct. 7 massacre], we have seen miracle, after miracle, after miracle.” Taha also said in a Nov. 2023 sermon that Israel continually disgraced the Al Aqsa Mosque, “so your brothers and sisters in Gaza responded. The faces of the children of Israel will be so humiliated – Allah says that. What do you want more than the humiliation of faces than what you have seen nowadays?” Campus Reform cited footage from MEMRI TV highlighting Taha’s remarks.

The university issued a statement condemning Taha’s remarks as being “antisemitic” and “abhorrent” and that “the remarks were not made on a Kent State campus, nor as part of any official event or program.”