Columbia sister school Barnard College lays off dozens of employees weeks after antisemitism suit settlement

New York Post

2 days ago

Barnard College has made a 'painful' announcement that it will lay off nearly 80 full-time employees as part of a 'college-wide staff restructuring,' school officials said Thursday.
The layoffs come about three weeks after Barnard leaders agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by Jewish students claiming the Columbia University-affiliated school failed to properly address campus antisemitism.
3 Students from Barnard College and sister school Columbia University would often participate in disruptive and, at times, violent protests on each other's campuses in the wake of Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
Robert Miller
'As part of a one-time, college-wide restructuring, we've made the hard but necessary decision to eliminate multiple staff positions across departments,' Barnard President Laura Rosenbury wrote in a letter on the college's website.
In all, 77 staff members were culled, none of them faculty or from instructional services.
'This restructuring is part of our broader strategy to ensure Barnard remains strong, focused, and fully prepared to meet the needs of our community and the evolving landscape of higher education.'
The all-women's school was facing a $252 million debt crunch at the end of fiscal year 2024, and a ballooning deficit that had doubled over the past decade.
To dig itself out, Barnard implemented several belt-tightening measures, including contributing less to staff and faculty benefits, introducing limits on business and travel expenses and the elimination of 40 unfilled staff positions, the Columbia Spectator wrote at the time.
3 Around three weeks after Barnard College settled a discrimination lawsuit filed by Jewish students, the elite all-women's college said it would lay off 77 staff members.
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As part of the settlement agreement earlier this month, the college agreed to several sweeping changes, including prohibiting masks, no longer engaging with the anti-Israel student protest group Columbia University Apartheid Divest and establishing a dedicated Title VI coordinator to oversee compliance with antidiscrimination laws, officials said.
'Antisemitism, discrimination, and harassment in any form are antithetical to the values Barnard College champions,' Rosenbury said in a statement when the settlement was announced.
Barnard had been the site of numerous virulent anti-Israel student protests, including the takeover of the campus' Milstein Library by about 200 people, most of them hiding their identities with keffiyeh headscarves.
3 In March, some 200 students staged a takeover of Barnard College's Milstein Library, clashing with cops and chanting anti-Israel slogans. Nine students were arrested.
James Keivom
Nine students were arrested after the takeover, which included a fake bomb threat, and was inspired by the January expulsion of two Barnard students who were booted from the elite school after barging into a 'History of Modern Israel' class at nearby Columbia and distributing antisemitic literature.
A little more than a week ago, Columbia University paid out more than $220 million and pledged to reverse racially discriminatory practices and resolve civil rights violations against Jewish students and employees.
The settlement ensured some $400 million that the Trump administration pulled from the university in March would be restored, which a source familiar with the negotiations told The Post would have snowballed to affect billions in university research grants and other funding absent an agreement.
A Barnard College spokesperson directed The Post to Rosenbury's letter when reached for comment.