New England Patriots team owner Robert Kraft took aim at Columbia University professors in an op-ed published in the New York Post on Thursday morning.
Kraft, who pulled support for his alma mater earlier in the week because of the antisemitic violence and protests on campus, wrote in the newspaper that the focus of the demonstrations should shed light on what professors have taught those students.
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New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft before the AFC Wild Card playoff game against the Buffalo Bills at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, New York, on Jan. 15, 2022. (Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports)
“Today, the attention and visuals surrounding the hateful protests taking place on Columbia’s campus have been focused on the students, but the students have been taught and empowered by faculty more focused on politics than they are on education,” Kraft wrote.
“These are not the professors I had who exemplified the fundamental principles underpinning the mission of higher education in the United States.”
He added, “I do not recognize my alma mater.”
Kraft wrote to his astonishment over the signs on campus which read, “Go Back to Poland,” and chants of “Kill all the Jews” and “October 7th 10,000 more times.”
“The Columbia I loved is no longer a place I know,” he added in the New York Post.
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NYPD officers patrol as anti-Israel protesters demonstrate outside of Columbia University’s campus in New York City on Thursday, April 18, 2024. Multiple students were arrested as officers cleared an encampment on the campus’ lawn. (Peter Gerber for Fox News Digital)
“Those defining principles, once so revered, have been sacrificed by professors keen to use the classroom and the campus as a bully pulpit to promote their personal political viewpoints as opposed to fostering critical thinking — they preach eliminationist rhetoric championed by unchecked and dangerous activist groups.
“Jewish students have had to endure a level of fear and intimidation that I am not sure any other group in modern times this century has had to face on a college campus spread by people that are meant to protect them, not hate them.”
Kraft added that the hatred of Jewish people that is being perpetrated on campus is a “human issue” and if professors at higher education institutions refuse to address human issues then they’ve “lost their moral compasses.”
“My worst fears — what I have spent the last five years fighting against, using FCAS’s blue square, a symbol of standing up to all hate — are being realized and we all need to take action to make it stop,” Kraft added.
“Unchecked faculties have allowed this hate to grow and fester by using their classrooms for espousing personal views instead of educating.”
The owner of the New England Revolution, Robert Kraft, looks on during warmups before the game against the Philadelphia Union at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, on Nov. 8, 2023. (Brian Fluharty-USA TODAY Sports)
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Kraft called for institutional leaders to enforce their codes of conduct with students and faculty.
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Ryan Gaydos is a senior editor for Fox News Digital.
