‘WOLVES GUARDING THE HENHOUSE’: Two Columbia profs who helped set protest rules joined anti-Israel protests, report claims

Two Columbia University professors who sit on a committee that helps determine regulations regarding campus demonstrations might have been involved in anti-Israel protests at the school. 

Professors Joseph Slaughter and Susan Bernofsky, according to photos published by The Washington Free Beacon, seem to have participated in the protests that rocked the Ivy League university earlier this year. 

Slaughter is an English professor who specializes in “literature, law, and socio-cultural history of the Global South,” while Bernofsky is a professor of writing.

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Both Bernofsky and Slaughter are members of Columbia’s Rules of University Conduct Committee, whose purpose, according to the Columbia Senate website, is to “review and recommend revision of rules of University conduct, as well as the means of enforcing those rules.” Their positions on the committee give both professors a role in determining regulations about campus protests–such as the protests they may have participated in. 

Both Slaughter and Bernofsky have expressed opposition to the Jewish state before. 

In May, Bernofsky called on the City University of New York (CUNY) to “affirm amnesty” for all participants who were arrested in a disruptive anti-Israel encampment at the school. 

“I’m a former professor at Queens College,” Bernofsky posted to her X account on May 17. “I’m calling on @ChancellorCUNY to affirm amnesty for all students & workers arrested when you gave the NYPD the okay to break up the Gaza encampment & for CUNY not to participate in the DA ‘s prosecution.”

For his part, Slaughter in 2009 signed a “Letter on Academic Freedom in Palestine,” which asked the Columbia administration to oppose what it called “Israel’s continuing blockade of Gaza,” as well as other security measures that Israel took, which the letter signers claim restricted academic freedom for Palestinians.

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Some Columbia professors and alumni have questioned Slaughter’s and Bernofsky’s ability to remain impartial as members of the rules committee. 

Professor Elliot Glassman compared Slaughter and Bernofsky to “wolves guarding the henhouse,” and Ari Shrage, who cofounded the Columbia Jewish Alumni Association, said: “This is a huge conflict of interest. If the people who make the rules help students break the ones they don’t like, it really calls into question Columbia’s commitment to keeping order on campus.”

Slaughter alleged in a message to Campus Reform that the “Free Beacon story contains multiple documentably false statements about me and factual errors throughout” but did not elaborate. 

Campus Reform has contacted Columbia University, Professor Joseph Slaughter and Professor Susan Bernofsky for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.