Columbia University failed to address Jew-hatred on campus adequately after last year’s anti-Israel protests, but withdrawing federal funding from the private school could have a lasting, negative impact, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told the New York Times Magazine podcast “The Interview.”
The Jewish senator, who recently tabled a book tour citing “security concerns,” told Lulu Garcia-Navarro of the Times that he supports free speech but feels that Columbia let protests go too far, resulting in the Trump administration’s plan to withdraw $400 million in federal funding from the school.
“I believe in the right to protest,” he said. “I started my career protesting the Vietnam War, and I say to some people, ‘If I were your age, I’d be protesting something or other.’”
Schumer expressed concern that the Trump administration’s withdrawal of federal funding from Columbia could impact all students negatively, not just those involved in the protests.
“They took away $400 million, and I’m trying to find out what they took away,” he said. “Are they taking away money from cancer research or Alzheimer’s? What is the $400 million? It could be hurting all students. Students who go there who have nothing to do with the protest, students who might have protested peacefully or Jewish students who were victims of some of those protests.”
“My worry is that this $400 million was just done in typical Trump fashion,” he said. “Indiscriminately, without looking at its effect.”
