A longtime Columbia University professor who was criticized by Columbia’s president and congressional Republicans will no longer teach at the institution, after more than 25 years as a faculty member there.
Katherine Franke said in her letter on Friday that she was suspended from her job, following the university’s investigation into an interview she did with the media where she criticized students who had served in the Israel Defense Forces for allegedly harming other students at Columbia. The investigation found that his comments to the media, and his alleged retaliation against the complainant in subsequent writings, violated Columbia’s Division of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Policies and Procedures.
He is among several members of the American intelligence community who have been investigated or punished for speech that could be considered pro-Palestinian.
In a statement, Franke said he reached an agreement with Columbia that “releases me from my obligations to teach or participate in faculty administration after serving on Columbia’s legal faculty for 25 years.” He added, “While the university may call this transition in my case ‘retirement,’ it should be more accurately understood as termination dressed up in a more flattering way.”
He did not have a copy of the travel agreement, and the university did not cooperate. Columbia did not directly respond to his explanation for his departure.
On air last January Democracy Now!left-wing radio and television news, Franke talked about an incident that happened at the center where pro-Palestine protesters said they were sprayed with a dangerous chemical. The students were hospitalized, and the organizers of the demonstration blamed some of the students for having served in the Israeli army. The university said in August that the substance sprayed was “non-toxic, legal, and fresh.”
Franke told the host that Columbia has a program that connects them “with older students from other countries, including Israel. And it’s something that many of us were concerned about, because many of those Israeli students, who came to the Columbia campus, came out of their military service. And they are known to harass Palestinians and other students on our campus. And it is something that the university has not taken seriously in the past.”
Most Israeli citizens must serve in the military for at least 32 months for men and 24 months for women.
“We know who they were,” Franke said on the Columbia attack suspect program. (Franke wrote in his statement on Friday that, “I have long had concerns that the transition from a soldier’s mindset to a student mindset can be difficult for some people, and that the university needs to do more to protect the safety of all members of our community. ”)
Franke’s Democracy Now! the comments became the subject of a university investigation and a wide-ranging congressional hearing related to campus dissent. Representative Elise Stefanik, a New York Republican, asked then-Columbia president Minouche Shafik what disciplinary action had been taken against Franke. He quoted Franke as saying, “Israeli students who served in the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] they are dangerous and should not be on campus.”
Shafik did not answer Stefanik directly, but replied, “I agree with you that those comments are completely unacceptable and discriminatory.” Later during the televised trial, Shafik confirmed that Franke was being investigated.
That investigation found that in addition to the interview comments, Franke violated the agency’s policy by retaliating against the plaintiffs.
November 2024 Columbia EOAA Investigation Determination letter, to one of the plaintiffs, provided Within Higher Ed, he says, “He also alleged retaliation three different times during this investigation when the complainant: (i) gave your name to a journalist and announced your identity as the person who initiated the complaint; (ii) retweeted a tweet referring to you as a ‘genocide advocate’ and a ‘McCarthyite bigot’; and (iii) post a link to a text on social media indicating that you have made additional complaints about the defendant.” (Franke had called the plaintiffs—two of his fellow teachers—to Within Higher Ed for the July issue.)
The letter says the university concluded that the interview and the first two allegations of retaliation violated policy.
In his statement on Friday, Franke said he has appealed the case. But “upon reflection, it became clear to me that Columbia had become such a hostile place that I could no longer serve as an active member of the faculty.”
Last year, people pretended to be students to secretly videotape him, and the clips ended up on “right-wing social media,” he said. Students signed up in his classes to spark conversations that they could record and complain about, he said, adding that his colleagues at the law school also secretly recorded him and shouted “in front of the students that I am a supporter of Hamas.”
“After President Shafik insulted me in Congress, I received many death threats at my home,” said Franke. “I keep getting emails that express the hope that I will be raped, killed and tortured because of my support for Palestinian rights.”
Columbia Law director Daniel Abebe told colleagues Thursday that Franke is “accelerating his planned retirement and will now retire from Columbia on Friday.” Abebe praised his work.
But Franke takes issue with the word “retirement.” In an email to Within Higher Ed to On Friday, Franke explained that he signed a deal with Columbia last year to “retire in a couple of years—in the middle.” But he said the university “retrenched” him by providing the usual retirement benefits, such as recommending him to step down from a position with the university’s Board of Trustees, giving him a five-year tenure and still allowing him to teach some classes.
“The leadership of Columbia University has shown a willingness to cooperate with the very enemies of our academic profession,” Franke wrote in his statement. “At a time when the attacks on higher education are the worst since the McCarthyite attacks of the 1950s, university leadership and trustees have abandoned any duty to protect the university’s most precious resources: its faculty, students and academic work.”
The university did not provide an interview on Friday. In an emailed statement, a Columbia spokesperson wrote, “Columbia is committed to being an inclusive community and our policies prevent discrimination and harassment.”
“As it was made public by the groups in this matter, a complaint was filed regarding harassment and discrimination in violation of our policies,” the statement continued. “An investigation was carried out, an investigation came out. As we have consistently stated, the university is committed to addressing all forms of discrimination in line with our principles.”
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