The motto means “In Your Light [God],
We Shall See the Light.” Too bad no one
running Columbia now believes in this.

In the past two months Columbia University has discovered that there are real consequences for tolerating and sometimes even supporting the bigotry and anti-Semitism of its Marxist and pro-Hamas students and faculty.

First, in early June a very wealthy Columbia graduate donated $260 million to Israel’s Bar-Ilan University. Though the donor remains anonymous, these details were released by the university:

Not only did the donor make a point to tell onlookers he fought in a conflict entrenched in antisemitism, but he also reiterated how he graduated from Columbia.

It appears the donor wanted to make it very clear that Columbia had once been in the running for this donation, but its wishy-washy response to the riots committed on campus by pro-Hamas students caused him to reject it.

Nor has this been all. Another major donor to Columbia, Mortimer Zuckerman, announced earlier this week that he has cut off payments on a major $200 million donation he had initiated to Columbia in 2012, totaling millions.

For months, Zuckerman engaged in conversations with Columbia, raising concerns about the school’s governance and handling of campus anti-Semitism following Oct. 7, the Zuckerman Family Office spokeswoman told the Free Beacon. Columbia, in response, requested time to “rebuild trust and demonstrate better governance.”

But that rebuilding failed to take shape, prompting Zuckerman, a media and real estate mogul, to pause millions in funding. Columbia had become the forefront of campus anti-Semitism, with protesters eventually storming Hamilton Hall and barricading its entrance. In-person classes and the main graduation ceremony were canceled.

And last week, Columbia announced that it would not fire the four deans at the center of a texting scandal after they were caught exchanging derogatory text messages during an alumni panel on anti-Semitism. Instead the school opted to reassign three of the deans, while the fourth and most senior administrator, Columbia College dean Josef Sorett, would remain in his post.

According to officials for Zuckerman, “a significant minority payment” of this $200 million donation had already been made, but the rest will not be.

The last paragraph of the quote above is significant. The four deans in question all had positions supposedly focused on improving life and providing support for students on campus. Instead, they all were caught expressing outright contempt for the fears and concerns of their Jewish students, proving they had no interest in doing their job where Jews were concerned.

These are probably the worst colleges in the country

Yet, the university has not fired three of them, simply shifting them to different positions (likely the same job but with a different title) and has allowed the fourth to remain in his position, unscathed. No wonder Zuckerman has ended his donation.

Expect more such actions by big academic donors, especially at the very bankrupt Ivy League colleges where such Marxist, pro-Hamas, queer theory, and DEI programs run rampant. These are not good universities, and unless they reform themselves soon (something we would be fools to expect) they should be shut down. It is good therefore that major donors are now finally recognizing this reality.