《华盛顿邮报》的全国教育记者汉娜·纳坦森讲述了哥伦比亚大学法学院教授凯瑟琳·弗兰基的故事，她被卷入了加沙冲突引发的校园动荡中。弗兰基的遭遇说明了学术界在紧张局势加剧和审查力度加大时期所承受的压力和恐惧。 故事始于九月，几个月前，弗兰基被同事佐哈尔·戈申和约书亚·米茨指控骚扰以色列学生，理由是她声称这些学生欺负巴勒斯坦同学。这一指控引发了大学的调查，并威胁到她的工作。哥伦比亚大学校长米努·沙菲克向国会披露此事，使得该调查引起了公众的关注。弗兰基是一位终身教授，长期从事社会活动，她发现自己身处一个变化了的校园中，面临着支持巴勒斯坦的抗议活动和反犹太主义的指控。 弗兰基的社会活动始于反对歧视艾滋病患者，并在她在哥伦比亚大学的职业生涯中延续下来，期间她挑战了该大学在各种问题上的政策。她一直是一位直言不讳的批评者，从不惧怕争议。然而，在一次“现在民主”的采访中，她谈到了以色列学生在以色列服兵役后的行为，并因此受到了反犹太主义的指控，这标志着一个转折点。弗兰基表示：“如此多的以色列学生在哥伦比亚大学入学前刚刚服完兵役，众所周知，他们骚扰我们校园里的巴勒斯坦和其他学生，而大学过去对此并不重视。” 戈申和米茨认为这是对以色列学生的刻板印象和骚扰，并提出了投诉。弗兰基对她的同事们没有事先与她讨论他们的担忧就采取行动感到震惊。她聘请了一名律师，随后，她的名字和评论受到了国会议员埃莉斯·斯蒂凡尼克的公开批评，这促使哥伦比亚大学的领导层进行了进一步的调查。由于哥伦比亚大学的校长同意这位国会议员的观点，即弗兰基的言论“不可接受且具有歧视性”，弗兰基感到被背叛。她指出，沙菲克公开披露调查的行为无视了她的权利，她曾希望调查能保持私密。弗兰基受到了骚扰性的语音邮件和电子邮件，促使她从教员页面上删除了她的电子邮件地址。 大学评议会后来通过了一项决议，声称哥伦比亚大学的领导人无视了个人学生和教职员工的隐私和正当程序权利。五月份，一间外部律师事务所被任命进行调查。弗兰基觉得哥伦比亚大学想拿她做榜样，调查持续了几个月。弗兰基在社区中找到了支持，包括前学生和教职员工，他们称赞她“很厉害”，并且是可以依靠的人。 随着时间的推移，戈申和米茨提出了更多的投诉，使调查进一步复杂化。到十月下旬，弗兰基收到了一封来自25位她认为是朋友的同事的电子邮件，向他们通报了调查的最新情况。她想解释她为何缺席哥伦比亚大学。她写道：“我确实想念与你们大家在一起的时光，但更根本的是，我非常担心接下来会发生什么。” 最终，在感恩节前不久，调查人员几乎在所有问题上都做出了对她不利的裁决，认定她在“现在民主”上的言论构成了骚扰，并且她通过在“高等教育内幕”的采访中指名戈申和米茨以及转发一条称他们为“种族灭绝倡导者”的帖子来报复他们。弗兰基不想面对她的学生，也不想花更多的时间离开他们，所以她选择在1月10日退休，结束了她在哥伦比亚大学25年的职业生涯。

Hannah Natanson, a national education reporter for The Washington Post, tells the story of Katherine Frankie, a Columbia Law School professor caught in the crossfire of campus turmoil surrounding the Gaza conflict. Frankie's story illustrates the pressures and fears experienced by academics during a period of heightened tensions and scrutiny. The story begins in September, months after Frankie was accused by colleagues Zohar Goshen and Joshua Mitz of harassing Israeli students by alleging they bullied Palestinian classmates. This accusation triggered a university investigation that threatened her job. The probe gained public attention when Columbia President Minu Shafik disclosed it to Congress. Frankie, a tenured professor with a long history of activism, finds herself navigating a changed campus amidst pro-Palestinian protests and accusations of anti-Semitism. Frankie's activism began with defending against AIDS discrimination and continued through her career at Columbia, where she challenged the university's policies on various issues. She had always been a vocal critic, unafraid of controversy. However, the accusations of anti-Semitism following a Democracy Now interview where she discussed Israeli students' behavior after military service in Israel marked a turning point. Frankie stated that "so many of those Israeli students who then come to the Columbia campus are coming right out of their military service, and they've been known to harass Palestinian and other students on our campus, and it's something the university has not taken seriously in the past." Goshen and Mitz cited this as stereotyping and harassment of Israeli students, prompting their complaint. Frankie was shocked her colleagues had taken action without first discussing their concerns with her. She hired a lawyer, and then her name and comments were publicly criticized by Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, which prompted further investigation from Columbia's leadership. As Columbia's president agreed with the congresswoman's assertion that Frankie's comments were "unacceptable and discriminatory", Frankie felt betrayed. She noted that Shafik had disregarded her rights by publicly revealing the investigation, which she had hoped would stay private. Frankie was subjected to harassing voicemails and emails, prompting her to remove her email address from her faculty page. The university senate would later pass a resolution asserting that Columbia's leaders had disregarded the privacy and due process rights of individual students and faculty members. In May, an outside law firm was appointed to investigate. Frankie felt like Columbia was trying to make an example of her, and the probe continued for months. Frankie found support within the community, including former students and faculty who lauded her as "a badass" and someone who could be relied upon for support. As time went on, additional complaints were filed by Goshen and Mitz, further complicating the investigation. By late October, Frankie received an email from 25 colleagues she considered friends, updating them on the investigation. She wanted to explain her absence from Columbia. She wrote, "I do miss being in community with you all, but more fundamentally, I am very concerned about what comes next." Finally, shortly before Thanksgiving, the investigators ruled against her on almost every count, determining that her comments to Democracy Now constituted harassment and that she had retaliated against Goshen and Mitz by naming them in an interview with Inside Higher Ed and retweeting a post that called them "genocide advocates." Frankie did not want to face her students, or spend more time away from them, so she chose to retire on January 10, ending her 25-year career at Columbia.