The Review: Should Columbia be worried about Title VI?

Plus: A gun goes off. ADVERTISEMENT [The Review Logo]( You can also [read this newsletter on the web](. Or, if you no longer want to receive this newsletter, [unsubscribe](. It’s impossible to know for certain what behind-the-scenes pressures and cross-pressures buffeted Nemat (Minouche) Shafik, Columbia’s president, between her testimony at last month’s congressional hearing and her authorization, almost immediately afterward, of a police action on campus to clear student encampments. (As everyone knows by now, that crackdown only escalated tensions, as have similar crackdowns across the country.) Before the hearing, a policy of wise forbearance appeared to be in place. After it, as if at the direction of the state, tolerance was supplanted by punitive police intervention. Not that it helped her with Congress: Elise Stefanik called for Shafik to resign anyway. Why did so many campus leaders suddenly decide they had to clear — right away! — the tent cities? Why didn’t they predict that such actions would inflame protesters further and multiply the troubles they were meant to solve? In The Atlantic, Tyler Austin Harper [quotes]( “an experienced senior administrator at a major research university”: “When I saw what Columbia was doing, my immediate thought was: They have not thought about Day 2. If you confront an 18-year-old activist, they don’t back down. They double down.” To some left critics, the crackdown is primarily ideological, an expression by college administrations of their intolerance for protest on the issue of Israel and Palestine specifically. Another explanation points the finger at donor pressure. A third credits the administrations with genuine worries over campus safety. I can only imagine that presidents and other upper administrators had gamed out worst-case scenarios involving violent outside agitators or vigilantes — scenarios that, in a country as armed to the gills as ours is, would leave enough hypothetical blood on the quad to panic anyone. Measuring the plausibility of those catastrophes against a Kent State massacre redux must have poisoned the sleep of many a provost and president. Then there’s the perceived risk of vulnerability to antidiscrimination law, as Congress launches probe after probe into supposed antisemitism on campus. Could anxiety about those investigations have triggered Shafik’s initial decision to clear the encampments? Were college leaders over-complying with what they took to be the demands of [Title VI]( of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which says that “no person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance”? (Since 2004, [religion]( has also been understood, by and large, as a protected category under Title VI.) SPECIAL OFFER FOR NEW SUBSCRIBERS Enjoying the newsletter? [Subscribe today]( for as low as $59. Take advantage of our limited- time savings event and get unlimited access to essential reporting, data, and analysis. SPONSOR CONTENT | Denison University [Denisons Path to Career Exploration and Readiness]( I asked Derek W. Black, a law professor at the University of South Carolina’s law school and an expert in discrimination law and education, whether he thought the threat of litigation might be motivating Shafik et al. “You can count on one hand,” he told me, “the number of times that schools have had federal funds terminated” for Title VI violations in the last several decades. Those cases involved standoffs between the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, or OCR, and institutions in defiant violation of the law, for instance Southern school districts that refused to desegregate. Even if the OCR decided — and that’s a big if — that the demonstrations at Columbia had impeded Jewish or Israeli students’ equal access to education, the federal government doesn’t simply turn off the tap: “99.9 percent of the time,” Black said, “there’s informal conversation behind closed doors,” during which the OCR and the institution agree to a remedy. Nothing about Title VI itself, in other words, “dictates … extremely aggressive measures.” In the meantime, Columbia keeps calling the police. While the NYPD was clearing Columbia’s Hamilton Hall last week, an officer fired a gun, allegedly by mistake. “The situation was fluid, and at certain times under low-light conditions,” the NYPD’s spokesperson explained. In the gloom, an officer “transitioned his firearm from his dominant hand to his non-dominant hand.” That’s when “the unintentional discharge occurred”; the bullet lodged in a nearby wall. So far, so lucky. ADVERTISEMENT UPCOMING PROGRAM [The Chronicle's Strategic-Leadership Program for Department Chairs | June 2024] [Join us in June]( for a professional development program tailored to the needs of department chairs. Experienced academic leaders will provide insights on the the current trends in higher ed, effective ways to manage a department, strategic planning, and more. 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