In early March, the University issued a strong statement condemning the deliberate harassment and targeting of members of our community. Acting President Shipman has regularly urged all members of the community to reject doxing and targeted harassment as responses to disagreement.
It is therefore deeply disappointing that flyers were distributed last week singling out community members by name and photograph. The flyers included inaccurate and inflammatory claims. In a familiar trajectory, these materials were subsequently shared online. This incident—along with similar actions over recent months and years targeting students, faculty, staff, senior administrators, and trustees—is unacceptable and fundamentally at odds with our community values. Such conduct exposes individuals to ongoing harassment and the spread of false and unfounded allegations. Members of our community who were targeted or doxed more than a year ago are still grappling with the often-traumatic consequences. We have worked to provide adequate anti-doxing resources, to call out behavior, but our remedies are often imperfect. Students are the most vulnerable, but nobody in our community should be targeted. There are better ways to make a point.
Freedom of expression is a bedrock of our institution. Healthy, robust and open debate is essential to academic life and plays a critical role in surfacing important issues. Criticism, of ideas, political positions, and actions of University leadership, is a natural and necessary part of that discourse. But the deliberate targeting of individuals, whether in person or online, even to make what seems a critical political point, undermines the meaningful exchange of ideas that sustains our community and impedes our ability to move forward together.
We are guided by values that prioritize the dignity, safety, and rights of every member of our community. Targeting, harassment, and intimidation—online and in real life—have no place at Columbia. We must hold ourselves to a higher standard, grounded in mutual respect and shared responsibility for the well-being of all in our community.
