A few weeks ago, controversy arose at Columbia University when a group of students made plans to meet with Iran’s lovable fuzzball of a dictator, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, for a dinner date. Now a Jewish student at Columbia is claiming that earlier this year she was advised not to take a course entitled “Arabs and the Arab World,” taught by Columbia professor Joseph Massad. Her adviser allegedly encouraged her to avoid the professor, explaining that she would be “uncomfortable” because “he’s very anti-Israel.”
The Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights has opened up an investigation to determine if there is evidence of racial “steering” in this case, and if a violation of Title IX’s prohibition on racial discrimination took place.