What should we expect from a university?

The New York News editorializes on a recent faculty promotion decision by Columbia University. Excerpts:

Columbia University made a distressingly wrongheaded decision last week when it promoted a professor with a history of classroom bullying, anti-Semitism, anti-Israel propaganda and crackpot theories.
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The instructor in question, Joseph Massad, is affiliated with a troubled department known as Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures, or Mealac.

After Jewish students accused faculty of intimidation and bias against Israel, a university investigation concluded in April that Massad had "exceeded commonly accepted bounds" of teaching.
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At the time, Massad was an assistant professor approaching his fifth year at Columbia. He was up for a review that would determine whether he stayed on a track toward tenure - a virtual lifetime employment guarantee.

This page called for his dismissal, citing his bullying and the lunatic and offensive nature of some of his writings. Among those was an article proclaiming that Jews are infected by mass psychosis and driven to persecute Palestinians as an expression of self-hatred.

The conclusion Massad drew from his "research": Palestinians are the real Jews and Jews are the real anti-Semites.

Despite all that, Columbia promoted Massad from assistant to associate professor. This is not a small step. Associate professors are eligible to be considered for tenure, and many of the administrators who approved Massad's promotion will likely participate in deciding in two years, when memories of his bullying have faded, whether to make Massad a full professor.

You can read the entire editorial here.

If Massad had treated gay students as he’s treated Jewish students, who thinks Columbia would have promoted him?

Columbia would have rightly decided Massad’s bullying of gays was unacceptable behavior for a faculty member; and not renewed his contract. The would have been a relatively simple step given Massad does not yet have tenure.

But Massad bullied Jewish students; and then got promoted.

That tells you a lot.

Columbia President Lee Bollinger’s email is: Bollinger@Columbia.edu