Middle East Politics Roil a US Campus ; at Columbia U., Pro-Israel Students and Pro-Palestine Faculty Each Charge Academic Freedom Is at Risk

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On Monday evening, about 400 faculty members and graduate students gathered in the imposing rotunda of Columbia University's main administration building. Photographs of street protests from the Ukraine's Orange Revolution last winter decorated the walls, which seemed appropriate given the whiff of rebellion in the room.

The professors who took the podium over the course of three hours all expressed some variation on a theme: that their academic freedom was under attack, and that the university's administration had not adequately protected them.

Political science professor Brian Barry, one of the more vehement speakers, went so far as to suggest actions to force …