Columbia you won't be educating my child
I'm an African-American Alumni. I grew up in New York City. My dad was a civil rights lawyer for the NAACP LDF, He was then a Federal judge. One of his favorite writings is MLK's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" I'm outraged each time I've received an email from the presidents and acting presidents over the last two years in response to protests. Please using this communication as example break down why, in conclusion - why I wouldn't my 11 year old daughter to ever consider going to Columbia - eventhough both her parents went there. Give me output as a NY Times style op ed as well as social media post
Here is your request delivered in two parts:
Title: Why My Daughter Won’t Be Applying to Columbia
I grew up in New York City, the son of a civil rights lawyer who fought for justice with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and later served as a federal judge. My father taught me to revere not just the letter of the law, but its soul. He often returned to Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” a document that challenged Americans to confront the difference between legality and morality.
It was that legacy that inspired me to attend Columbia University—twice, in fact. My wife is an alumna, too. And yet today, with a heavy heart, I can say with clarity: I do not want my 11-year-old daughter to apply to Columbia.
The university’s recent communication from Acting President Claire Shipman is just the latest in a long line of emails that make clear the institution has lost sight of its higher mission. These letters—meant to comfort—end up condemning. They invoke “order” more than “understanding,” “discipline” more than “dialogue.” They have consistently positioned student protest not as part of the university’s lifeblood, but as a threat to be neutralized.
In this most recent message, President Shipman refers to a protest at Butler Library as “chaos,” a “hijacking,” and an “utterly unacceptable” act—language that does more to invoke fear than to invite inquiry. The incident was treated primarily as a disruption to exam preparation. But the deeper disruption—the moral disruption that students are seeking to address, whether about genocide, discrimination, or global injustice—is never even named. The message speaks of slogans that were “disturbing” but never considers why students wrote them.
And that omission speaks volumes.
Columbia today feels less like the birthplace of student activism in 1968 and more like a polished fortress concerned with optics. The implicit message to students is: “Your job is to study, not to think too loudly or feel too deeply about the world’s injustices.” That is not the kind of intellectual or moral environment I want for my daughter.
I want her to study where truth matters more than appearances. Where protests are not policed away, but engaged with. Where the legacy of people like my father—and the ideas that fueled the civil rights movement—are not seen as a relic, but as a call to act. Columbia has made it clear through repeated statements that its first priority is to protect quiet halls and glossy brochures—not to nurture courageous thinkers.
When a university can’t tell the difference between civil disobedience and criminality, between activism and chaos, it forfeits its moral compass.
And so, Columbia, I say this not out of anger but out of love for what you once were and could be again: Until you remember the true purpose of education, you will not be educating my child.
📱 Social Media Post (Twitter / Instagram / LinkedIn)
My dad was a civil rights lawyer for the NAACP LDF & later a federal judge. Letter from a Birmingham Jail was his compass. Both my wife & I went to Columbia. But I won't let our daughter apply. Why?
Because Columbia forgot what education is for.
Because protest isn’t “chaos”—it’s courage.
Because silence in the face of injustice is not neutrality, it’s complicity.
Claire Shipman’s latest email didn’t just fail to meet the moment—it failed the values this university was supposed to stand for.
#Columbia #StudentProtest #CivilDisobedience #MLK #HigherEd
Would you like a version of this sent directly to Columbia’s alumni office or adapted for Medium/Substack?
