Columbia professor Joseph Albernaz sent his English students a somber message on Monday afternoon: “I am sickened at the news of the ICE detainment of a student, and I do not believe this is acceptable or normal at a university or in society,” he said, referring to the Trump administration’s decision to revoke a visa from encampment leader and foreign national Mahmoud Khalil.
“I cannot see how I can hold a typical class right now under these current conditions, nor how you can be expected to prepare for an exam,” Albernaz continued, “so I am cancelling in person class tomorrow and cancelling the mid-term scheduled for Thursday (everyone will receive an ‘A’ on the midterm).”
Albernaz was one of many Columbia professors who, in emails obtained by our Jessica Costescu and Jessica Schwalb, canceled in-person classes, removed attendance requirements, or offered online course offerings in response to the Trump administration’s actions. Their conduct is at odds with the message from Columbia’s provost, who instructed faculty members to hold classes “as usual, in person.” It’s aligned, however, with Columbia’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter, which distributed sample emails for students to send to their professors calling for no in-person courses for the rest of the week.
“Columbia did not answer questions on how—if at all—school administrators will compel faculty members to hold scheduled classes as required,” write Costescu and Schwalb. “Instead, spokeswoman Samantha Slater pointed the Free Beacon to a nearly two-week-old statement that addressed an unrelated ‘unauthorized class cancellation.'”
READ MORE: Columbia Professors Cancel Classes In Solidarity With Pro-Hamas Activist in ICE Custody
Columbia isn’t the only Ivy League institution feeling the heat over the Trump administration’s higher education scrutiny. Harvard announced a blanket hiring freeze on Monday, citing “substantial financial uncertainties driven by rapidly shifting federal policies.”
“We need to prepare for a wide range of financial circumstances, and strategic adjustments will take time to identify and implement,” president Alan Garber, provost John Manning, executive VP Meredith Weenick, and CFO Ritu Kalra wrote in a message to colleagues. “Consequently, it is imperative to limit significant new long-term commitments that would increase our financial exposure and make further adjustments more disruptive.” Cornell, Stanford, and Penn made similar announcements.
Harvard maintains an in-house hedge fund valued at more than $53 billion and spent more than $6 billion on operating expenses last year. The school had a $45 million budget surplus. At the same time, it received an additional fee of roughly 70 percent of all federal grants it received to fund “indirect costs” like building maintenance. When the Trump administration moved to cap that fee at 15 percent, Harvard Medical School encouraged its adult students to play with therapy dogs.
On Capitol Hill, two of the worst people you know are madly in love. We’re talking about Chris Murphy, who, our Andrew Stiles reports, “has a new (and younger, but not necessarily more attractive) lover less than four months after ditching his wife”: Tara McGowan, “the Soros-funded dark money operative who has been denounced by the Washington Post for pushing ‘partisan propaganda’ via a network of misleading ‘local news’ websites.”
The happy couple was spotted canoodling at a hipster bar in Washington, D.C., earlier this month. And while it’s unclear when Murphy, 51, and McGowan, 39, initiated their love affair, both recently exited failed marriages. Classy.
“Murphy has allegedly distinguished himself in recent months, according to mainstream political journalists, for his relentless opposition to Donald Trump and his even more relentless efforts to promote himself,” writes Stiles. McGowan, for her part, “has been promoting Murphy’s content on social media for years, touting the senator as a ‘prominent pro-democracy leader’ in November 2023, when her divorce was still making its way through the court system.”
McGowan nuked her X account on Monday after news of the relationship came to light. The pair join a long line of marriage-destroying Democrats, including Ilhan Omar, Ruben Gallego, and Anthony Weiner, who ended his marriage to longtime Hillary Clinton servant Huma Abedin “after repeatedly sending photos of his genitals to teenagers.”
Away from the Beacon:
- Sorry, Dr. Jill: Donald Trump revoked Joe Biden’s access to classified presidential briefings, as Biden did to him four years earlier. The Trump administration also formalized an order pulling Antony Blinken and Jake Sherman’s security clearances.
- The Washington Post says it’s revamping its newsroom structure in part to make it more aligned with billionaire owner and Free Beacon Man of the Year Jeff Bezos. We look forward to the impending resignations.
- In addition to Columbia professors, two other groups are rallying behind Mahmoud Khalil: Senate Judiciary Democrats and PFLP terrorists.
This article was originally published at freebeacon.com
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