You may remember Gillian Lester, the Dean of Columbia Law School who rose to what was probably unwanted fame (or infamy) following the October 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel. Her initial response to the attack and the subsequent student protests mentioned “violence that erupted in Israel and Gaza” without even mentioning Hamas or the horrors that unfolded. She also took no action in response to the pro-Hamas students parading around the campus. Well, this week Lester threw in the towel and resigned. Of course, she’s now trying to make it look as if she had been planning on resigning anyway, so this is really not a big deal. (Free Beacon)

The dean of Columbia Law School, Gillian Lester, announced her resignation on Wednesday amid a spate of anti-Semitism scandals that have rocked the law school on her watch.

“I had originally intended to make this announcement in early October,” Lester told the law school in an email, “but my plan was unexpectedly overtaken by current events.” She will step down at the end of the academic year.

The law school has been battling accusations of anti-Semitism ever since Hamas’s Oct. 7 rampage through southern Israel, which Lester initially described as the “violence that erupted in Israel and Gaza.” Her statement, which did not mention Hamas or anti-Semitism, touched off weeks of damage control at the elite law school, where pro-Palestinian students recently occupied a campus building and disrupted class in violation of school policy.

The leading candidate to replace Lester is a former dean of the school named David Schizer. He’s already been tasked to lead Columbia’s hastily formed task force on antisemitism. Plus, he has ten years of experience in the position, so there shouldn’t be much of a transition period required.

Nobody is making any admissions, but it does seem like the school is trying to send a message and do some additional damage control. Bringing back someone who is already known and liked by the Jewish community and who quickly moved to work against anti-Jewish bias is about as close to an admission of a massive error as you’re likely to see. One alumnus who was interviewed about the change said that Schizer’s appointment would “send a clear message to the anti-Semites.”

We’re still left with the nagging question of whether the leadership truly understands and regrets their response to the anti-Israel protests and the damage that’s being done to the school’s reputation. Or are they just noticing the number of people who are vowing to stop making contributions to the university’s massive trust fund and the number of student applicants who are now choosing to go elsewhere?

No matter the underlying motives, these are the sorts of changes we’re going to need to see if any sort of order is to be restored across our colleges and universities. Nobody is trying to deprive young citizens on campus of their right to speak, but another lesson they should be learning is that speech can come with consequences from your fellow citizens. That’s particularly true of the most heinous speech imaginable that literally endangers the lives of Jewish citizens. As for the non-citizen students who are here on student visas, they need to be rounded up and sent back to their own countries. We don’t need literally Nazis here. Take that crap to Europe where you’ll probably find more people accepting of it.