Dear Columbia: You Are Complicit

Dear Columbia University Acting President Claire Shipman, School of International and Public Affairs Dean Keren Yarhi-Milo, Columbia University Trustees, SIPA Administrators, and SIPA Program Heads:

I am writing to you on my own behalf, as an individual alumna of Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA).

It has been 27 days, and SIPA has not meaningfully spoken up for Mahmoud Khalil.

On Saturday, March 29—SIPA Alumni Day 2025—rather than celebrating the school and our association with it, a number of SIPA alumni including myself held a press conference and protest at 1:00 pm outside the Columbia gates at 116th St. and Amsterdam Avenue. We condemned SIPA's collusion with the Trump administration (including ICE and DHS) and the NYPD, and the school's failure to act against the Israeli-U.S. genocide of the Palestinian people by:

1. Renouncing our degrees and our association with SIPA and Columbia University;
2. Destroying our diplomas;
3. Pledging to end our donations to SIPA and Columbia University; and
4. Pledging to continue to speak publicly on these matters.

As you are no doubt aware, the protest was extensively covered by local, regional, national, and international press outlets, including Democracy Now!, The Guardian, ABC, CBS, NBC, the New York Post, Daily News, Fox News, AJ+ (Al Jazeera Plus), The Palestine Chronicle, Middle East Eye, and many more.

Among the many points that were made at the press conference, we alumni made clear that the false conflation of anti-Zionism and antisemitism, and the false conflation of Judaism and Zionism by Columbia University, are, in fact, cynical antisemitic ploys that put Jews and all people in danger.

Acting President Shipman: In your first message to the Columbia University community, you wrote, "...to our alumni community, I want to emphasize how important you are to the strength of our institution. Your engagement is critical, and I look forward to your partnership."

However, past statements that you, Ms. Shipman, have made as co-chair of the Board of Trustees do not suggest that common ground can be found. Are you interested in taking rapid steps to change course by:

• Divesting Columbia's holdings in all endeavors making possible the Israeli-U.S. genocide of the Palestinian people;

• Reversing actions taken by your predecessor(s) in acceding to (colluding with) Trump administration demands;

• Protecting free speech and the right to dissent for ALL on campus;

• Condemning the draconian and illegal actions taken against Mahmoud Khalil and other anti-genocide students, faculty, and staff;

• Renouncing Columbia's partnership with the NYPD in repressing Columbia students and militarizing the campus;

• Permanently closing the Tel Aviv Global Center and the Columbia dual degree program with Tel Aviv University; and

• Joining in a "Mutual Defense Compact" to block Trump's campus attacks, as advocated by the Rutgers University Senate, in which schools embody the values of democracy and "commit meaningful funding to a defense fund to provide immediate and strategic support to any member institution under direct political or legal infringement"?

If so, perhaps the large and rapidly increasing number of alumni who are deeply alienated by the university would believe common ground might be found.

Speaking for myself, I have no optimism on any of these scores. I believe Columbia has become, in the words of Professor Rashid Khalidi in an article for The Guardian on March 25, "Vichy on the Hudson." I believe it has damaged its reputation beyond repair. Far more than capitulating to American fascism, I believe Columbia is collaborating with it, colluding with it, and emboldening it, thereby putting at risk not just countless other institutions of higher learning across the country, but our society, global humanitarian values, and the lives of the Palestinian people as well.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Scarlott, SIPA MIA '86 (renounced degree)