David Bernstein
Conor, Columbia has not been in an impossible position. All it needed to do since October 7 was apply its content-neutral rules on student (and faculty) behavior, stop students from breaking criminal laws against violence, trespass, intimidation, and vandalism, and cooperate with Congress's request for information regarding how it was handling Title VI issues. That's it. It didn't have to suppress any speech.
Conor Friedersdorf
Now left-leaning institutions like Columbia are under attack by right populists who are invoking civil rights law and the need to fight antisemitism a kind of racism, in ways that chill speech. If you read just one piece to understand the impossible position Columbia has been in, due to tensions in different laws it is compelled to follow, read this one:https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/11/race-and-the-anti-free-speech-diversion/415254/?gift=JVBFw4prAGLDDaC8P3DrSWDxNxdjJTUHkOaB7ZjtJOc&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share