DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Daughter Suspended for Involvement in Columbia Protest
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-18 | by ( Sharon Otterman | Anna Betts | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Isra Hirsi, the daughter of Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, is among several Barnard students who have been suspended for participating in a pro-Palestinian encampment at Columbia University. The camp, which includes dozens of tents pitched on the campus’s South Lawn in protest against Israeli actions in Gaza, has created a standoff between administrators and students on the Ivy League campus. Ms. Hirsi posted on social media around 11:30 a.m. on Thursday that she was one of three students suspended so far for participating in the protest, which began on Wednesday, the day the university’s president, Nemat Shafik, appeared before Congress to discuss antisemitism on campus. At the congressional hearing, Dr. Shafik told lawmakers that she would enforce rules about unauthorized protests and antisemitism. Ms. Omar, who is on the committee that held the hearing and who did not mention that her daughter was among the pro-Palestinian protesters, was one of several Democrats who questioned Ms. Shafik about her actions toward Palestinian and Muslim students.

Persons: Isra Hirsi, Ilhan Omar, Barnard, Hirsi, Nemat Shafik, Shafik, Omar Organizations: Columbia University, Ivy League Locations: Minnesota, Gaza

☆ Protests Intensify at Columbia, Forcing Difficult Choices for Leaders
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-18 | by ( Sharon Otterman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For a second day, pro-Palestinian students at Columbia University on Thursday directly challenged the vow that their administrators made during a high-stakes congressional committee hearing to crack down on unauthorized student protests as part of the university’s fight against antisemitism. The students have set up dozens of tents on the South Lawn of the campus, in front of the iconic Butler Library. They have also set up a makeshift kitchen, and held a teach-in and a film screening. And though Columbia administrators have closed the campus’s gates to outsiders, hundreds of students and others rallied with the protesters inside and outside of the school, overnight and through the morning. The escalation is a sharp challenge to Columbia’s president, Nemat Shafik, who largely conceded in a hearing before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on Wednesday that she felt some of the common chants at pro-Palestinian protests were antisemitic.

Persons: it’s, ”, Maryam Alwan, Nemat Shafik Organizations: Columbia University, Butler, Education Locations: Columbia

☆ Opinion | Republicans Wanted a Crackdown on Israel’s Critics. Columbia Obliged.
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-18 | by ( Michelle Goldberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Testifying before the same panel on Wednesday, she readily agreed with Republicans’ premise that pro-Palestinian activism at Columbia is shot through with anti-Jewish bigotry, and explained how, under her leadership, Columbia is cracking down. Fifteen students, she said, had been suspended, and six more were on disciplinary probation. If it had been up to her, she said, the stridently anti-Zionist professor Joseph Massad would never have gotten tenure. (Columbia later confirmed that his chairmanship was scheduled to end after this semester.) By bending over backward to be agreeable, Shafik emerged from the four-hour grilling largely unscathed.

Persons: Nemat Shafik, Mohamed Abdou, “, ”, Joseph Massad, Massad, Shafik, that’s, Claire Shipman, David Greenwald, David Schizer, Shipman Organizations: Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia, Hamas, Islamic

☆ In Congress, Columbia’s Leaders Try to Please. At Home, They Face Anger.
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-17 | by ( Sharon Otterman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Representative Elise Stefanik leaned into the microphone and volleyed a series of questions at the university president sitting in front of her. It was about three hours into a congressional hearing examining antisemitism at Columbia University, and the president, Nemat Shafik, paused, sighed and gave a nervous laugh. “I think that would be — I think, I would, yes. Republican lawmakers on the House Committee on Education and the Work Force had come ready to pounce. They tested for weaknesses and prodded vulnerabilities, while their witnesses, a group of Columbia leaders, seemed conciliatory.

Persons: Elise Stefanik, Nemat Shafik, sighed, Stefanik, Shafik, “, ” Organizations: Columbia University, Republican, Education, Work Force, Columbia

The president of Columbia said the university had suspended 15 students. She promised that one visiting professor “will never work at Columbia again.”And when she was grilled over whether she would remove another professor from his leadership position, she appeared to make a decision right there on Capitol Hill: “I think I would, yes.”The president, Nemat Shafik, disclosed the disciplinary details, which are usually confidential, as part of an all-out effort on Wednesday to persuade a House committee investigating Columbia that she was taking serious action to combat a wave of antisemitism following the Israel-Hamas war. In nearly four hours of testimony before the Republican-led Committee on Education and the Workforce, Dr. Shafik conceded that Columbia had initially been overwhelmed by an outbreak of campus protests. But she said its leaders now agreed that some had used antisemitic language and that certain contested phrases — like “from the river to the sea” — might warrant discipline.

Persons: “, Nemat Shafik, Shafik Organizations: Columbia, Republican, Education, Workforce Locations: Israel

☆ Live Updates: Columbia’s President to Testify in Antisemitism Hearing
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-17 | by ( Sharon Otterman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

From left, Claudine Gay, president of Harvard University; M. Elizabeth Magill, president of Penn; Pamela Nadell, a professor at American University; and Sally Kornbluth, president of M.I.T., at a congressional hearing in December. When Nemat Shafik, the president of Columbia University, was asked to appear before Congress to testify about antisemitism on college campuses in December, she cited a scheduling conflict and said she could not attend. The president of the University of Pennsylvania, M. Elizabeth Magill, resigned four days after her appearance at the hearing, where she delivered evasive answers about campus antisemitism. Harvard’s president, Claudine Gay, similarly gave vague responses and faced fierce backlash for weeks up to her resignation in January. Lawyers who prepare clients to testify before Congress said that while there are risks to not appearing, it is always an option.

Persons: Claudine Gay, Elizabeth Magill, Penn, Pamela Nadell, Sally Kornbluth, Nemat Shafik, Shafik, Minouche, Christopher Armstrong, “, you’re, ”, it’s, ” Mr, Armstrong, There’s, Emily Loeb, Block, ” Sharon Otterman Organizations: Harvard University, American University, Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Education, Workforce, United Nations, Change, Lawyers, Holland, Knight, Jenner Locations: Dubai

☆ Columbia President Is Next to Be Grilled About Antisemitism by Congress
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-16 | by ( Sharon Otterman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Four months after an explosive congressional hearing on antisemitism precipitated the resignations of two Ivy League presidents, another university president is about to step to the hot seat. On Wednesday, Columbia’s president, Nemat Shafik, will testify about antisemitism before the same House committee that grilled the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The December hearing was a political showcase for Elise Stefanik, a New York lawmaker who is the No. Afterward, Ms. Stefanik counted the resignations of the president of the University of Pennsylvania, M. Elizabeth Magill, and Claudine Gay, the president of Harvard, as personal wins. “I will always deliver results,” Ms. Stefanik, a Harvard alumna and a prospective vice-presidential pick for Donald Trump, said after Dr. Gay’s resignation.

Persons: Nemat Shafik, lawyerly, Elise Stefanik, Ms, Stefanik, Elizabeth Magill, Claudine Gay, “, ” Ms, Donald Trump, Gay’s Organizations: Ivy League, University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New, Republican Locations: New York

Search resuls for: "Nemat Shafik"

7 mentions found