ABIGAIL THERNSTROM once described the American college campus as an island of repression in a sea of freedom. The report of Columbia University’s ad hoc grievance committee suggests that Columbia is such an island. On its face, the report presents findings and recommendations concerning allegations by Columbia students that they were subjected to intimidation and abuse by members of the university’s department of Middle East and Asian Language and Cultures (MEALAC). However, the report is better understood as a directive to Columbia students to take without protest the poisonous medicine being administered by the anti-Israel, anti-American radicals who dominate MEALAC.

The Columbia Middle Eastern studies faculty has long been a hot-bed of pro-Palestinian activism. (This sorry history was captured by Ron Lewenberg in an article for FrontPage magazine.) The driving force behind this radicalism was the late Professor Edward Said.