This is an academic trying to protect his international students who don’t have the benefit of citizenship by encouraging the exercise of prudence. I don’t think this is a fair read of the dynamic. - ThreadSky

anthonymkreis.bsky.social • 14 hours ago

This is an academic trying to protect his international students who don’t have the benefit of citizenship by encouraging the exercise of prudence. I don’t think this is a fair read of the dynamic.

Reposted from Dan Froomkin/Press Watch/Heads Up News

Great. Columbia J-school students from abroad are being told to obey in advance by their dean. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/12/n...

Comments

michaelgkagan.bsky.social•14 hours ago

Agreed. I have to get the same advice to immigrant, especially undocumented, students and colleagues. It is painful advice to give but it is sound advice.

joegordon.bsky.social•11 hours ago

"painful but sound" is a familiar tone for me. lots of it during 2017-21. would like less of it going forward.

michaelgkagan.bsky.social•9 hours ago

Same

dmschmeyer.bsky.social•11 hours ago

The hardest and bitterest pill to swallow is that he's just telling them the truth. Particularly his international students there on visas, which is the majority.

oldhoundderby.bsky.social•6 hours ago

Yup. Think if you’re a foreign student on the cusp of getting your degree and bailing on the US it would be horrible for it to all go sideways because you said or wrote something that ran afoul of the Trump Administration.

Americans can run those 1A risks if they choose to do so.

dmschmeyer.bsky.social•6 hours ago

It's our responsibility. That ain't their cross to bear. If they want in, they're welcome (it's also damn brave), but they get to do that under full assumption of the risk, not in our place while we talk tough.

dmrpolyps.bsky.social•10 hours ago

I'm sure that's the academic's intent, but the effect is just as described.

paulkirk.bsky.social•14 hours ago

I agree. Plus, I believe Jelani Cobb would mentally/psychologically beat the shit out of anyone positing that he isn’t looking out for his students.

hippiefromthesouth.bsky.social•14 hours ago

He isn't, he is living in fucking fear

hildegardvsalinas.bsky.social•11 hours ago

You’re letting perfect be the enemy of the good.

hippiefromthesouth.bsky.social•14 hours ago

Do not let Trump dictate to you or this weak ass professor. You do what's within your rights we will fight for you, if you hide your see you are as good as the enemy. Don't be a coward. They want you silent.

hippiefromthesouth.bsky.social•14 hours ago

This country is useless if It isn't free

lindakaboolian.bsky.social•10 hours ago

Hippie, I wish it were that easy. We can't guarantee them protection because the systems are corrupted and too many rights are no longer defined. It's important that anyone taking political risksin an aitocracy understand the possible consequences, no matter how much we wish it were not so.

oldhoundderby.bsky.social•6 hours ago

There’s nothing “weak ass” about this advice. If you’re on a student on a visa and lose it (all too easy to have happen) you could lose your degree. A lot of these students may not even have any plans to stay in the US or are even eligible (my J1 had a home residency rule where I was not eligible

oldhoundderby.bsky.social•6 hours ago

to apply for another US visa type unless I remained outside the US for 2 or 3 years (I don’t recall because I had no desire to stay longer than 3 years).

lizzy-nyc.bsky.social•10 hours ago

As the parent of a child in another country on a student visa, I think this is correct. The rules are different (and stricter) when you are on a student visa. I wouldn't want my kid (or anyone else's) being disappeared into the US's immigrations detention system.

lizzy-nyc.bsky.social•10 hours ago

We had this conversation with the kid before they left. "The typical college student stupidity that gets other kids arrested/expelled/whatever may get your visa revoked and get you deported. BE SMART about what you are doing."

sifill.bsky.social•10 hours ago

Agree. And if you anything about Jelani Cobb you know this to be true.

anjalienjeti.bsky.social•58 minutes ago

Cobb’s response in the NYTs is one thing. But he gave an entire speech (& addendum) which avoided addressing the fascist takeover of his own campus, where the administration, which he is a part of, represses free speech & terrorizes students, while the media publishes Zionist propaganda nonstop! 🤔

rosemaryandrock.bsky.social•10 hours ago

Absolutely

hanvanderhart.bsky.social•56 minutes ago

Columbia is so far past protecting its students it looped back around to calling the police on them and letting ICE into its buildings and complying in advance. Your replies are placatory and full of fear, which is understandable—but Cobb has power and should be leading with it.

swfong.bsky.social•11 hours ago

It is a quote taken out of context, but we are all at a point where we recognize the rule of law is unjust. Extraordinary measures are now needed.
A safety patrol with legal monitors might have protected Khalil. Instead the dean suggests total compliance.

mustbthemonee.bsky.social•11 hours ago

That last line summed it up pretty well.

"Nobody can protect you"

heyhellokaren.bsky.social•11 hours ago

Exactly. Jelani Cobb did not write this lightly. This is very different from what the Prez of Columbia has said and is saying.

unraveled5.bsky.social•9 hours ago

Agree.

connectedcooking.bsky.social•10 hours ago

I predict Zionism will become even less popular with Americans by the end of this year.

ilikenewspapers.bsky.social•11 hours ago

Another way to think of this would be looking forward - if you are a prospective journalism student not from the US

amb24.bsky.social•14 hours ago

The students are certainly getting an education, but not in First Amendment rights. Go home before you get arrested is a hell of a thing for a university to say.

pamwrites.bsky.social•10 hours ago

That’s not what he’s saying, he’s not telling anyone to go home. He’s saying if you become a target, the school can’t protect you. Forewarned is forearmed.

rimaanabtawi.bsky.social•10 hours ago

And, there’s no “if” here, they’re being and have been targeted, by both outside groups and the university admin. Well documented

rsphillips.bsky.social•11 hours ago

It is. Mad at the circumstances more than the advice.

chiefinsimi.bsky.social•14 hours ago

I think it is a fair read. American values and the constitution need to be defended by everyone who believes in American values. You have to be willing to fight or you’re gonna lose it all. They just need to be predated for what’s to come in this fight

chadcrichton.bsky.social•14 hours ago

I'd argue that, "being willing to fight" and, "making vulnerable international students who are at risk of being disappeared by the U.S. government think that the J-School at Columbia can protect them from the combined forced of the DHS, ICE, FBI, CIA and the White House" are very different things.

chiefinsimi.bsky.social•12 hours ago

Yeah it is but they know what this evil regime is if they don’t they should definitely be informed how bad it could get

edgarallandoh.bsky.social•11 hours ago

In detention?

chiefinsimi.bsky.social•11 hours ago

Sadly yeah and hopefully an honest judge will get the case and help that person out or the can hide. Hopefully some real form of law still exists and not rule by law

chadcrichton.bsky.social•10 hours ago

It's EXTREMELY clear that the intent is to get the people the government has kidnapped onto planes and out of the country long before they get anywhere NEAR a judge.

Most haven't even been ACCUSED of a crime and they're not being allowed to speak to lawyers or family, WHO DON'T KNOW WHERE THEY ARE.

wellestarr1.bsky.social•10 hours ago

Agree

narfnampil.bsky.social•7 hours ago

Agree!

jenebbeler.bsky.social•10 hours ago

Agreed. I interpreted this as radical honesty in a situation where faculty cannot, in fact, protect student from being deported.

davelikescars.bsky.social•8 hours ago

Correct. And the next lecture should be to American born students to start reporting.

jchan26.bsky.social•8 hours ago

Told several of our students something very similar today. Not threatening, trying to protect people I care about.

coffeeaddict416.bsky.social•11 hours ago

This is a dad protecting his charges

yeahbutnahbut.bsky.social•10 hours ago

💯

omrimarian.bsky.social•7 hours ago

But Anthony,people are telling me right here on this very website that the Dean can very easily protect his students against ICE, if he just wanted to!

jbparity.bsky.social•6 hours ago

Say that to Mahmoud Khalil.

retiredwhitelady.bsky.social•13 hours ago

I think this is very similar to "the conversation" Black parents have with their children. There is what's fair and there is reality, and it is rare the twain shall meet. So it's a matter of what the student wants...if they choose to risk both education and liberty, they should go in with eyes wide

retiredwhitelady.bsky.social•13 hours ago

open, knowing the institution's power to protect them is extremely limited. "Demanding" something is far from actually getting it.

retiredwhitelady.bsky.social•13 hours ago

There may be a fine line between obeying in advance, and approaching risk strategically. There are a lot of people in much safer positions, however, than folks here on student visas. Same as civil disobedience...never do it on a whim, always be well prepared.

jgilligan.org•11 hours ago

A lot of people condemning Cobb are taking what he told students out of context and ignoring what he's been saying, loudly, about cowardly universities, news media, and corporations capitulating to Trump.

https://bsky.app/profile/jgilligan.org/post/3lk7fs5k2kk2t

mattyost.bsky.social•14 hours ago

the idea that an action cannot be well-intentioned (let alone reasonable) if it could be characterized as threatening a tangentially related ideological goal is so infuriatingly emblematic of where we are now in discourse land

saraht74.bsky.social•10 hours ago

Are the people who are angry about this planning to arrange the defense and logistical support of naive young journalists who get deported? Somehow I think not.

nyckaty132.bsky.social•11 hours ago

He knows once they’re in the system they won’t have access to lawyers and too great a chance of being deported. Trump fired hundreds immigration judges so it’s very fucked up. Better safe than sorry.

nyckaty132.bsky.social•14 hours ago

Smart but tragic it’s needing to be said and heeded. I’d bet there’s lot students visa applications which will not be proceeded or approved.

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