Patriots owner Robert Kraft pulls support for Columbia amid 'virulent hate' on campus
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft is pulling his support for Columbia University over the treatment of Jewish students and faculty during pro-Palestinian protests at the campus in New York City.
The announcement by Kraft, a former Columbia student and major donor, adds to pressure on the university, whose president is facing calls by members of Congress to resign.
"I am deeply saddened at the virulent hate that continues to grow on campus and throughout our country," Kraft said in a statement through his Foundation to Combat Antisemitism. "I am no longer confident that Columbia can protect its students and staff and I am not comfortable supporting the university until corrective action is taken."
The businessperson helped kickstart funding for an $11.5 million building with a $3 million donation to construct what would become the Kraft Center for Jewish Student Life in 2000, and he’s donated millions more since.
Kraft is still willing to support the center, he said during a CNN interview later Monday. “That has been a haven of safety,” he told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “But the situation on campus has gone “too far, for months,” he added.
He also contrasted the protests over the Israel-Hamas war with his time on campus.
“I think back when I went to Columbia, the Vietnam war was raging and people spoke out and they paid the consequences, but they were willing to do it. They didn't wear masks and they had accountability. And now we have to have accountability,” Kraft said.
The “turning point" for him, Kraft said, was seeing that Shai Davidai, an outspoken Israeli professor at the school, had his access to campus revoked as he attempted to join a counter-protest.
Columbia’s campus was mired in conflict for the fifth day in a row Monday, as members of Congress called on President Joe Biden to send in the National Guard and politicians from disparate ideological backgroundscriticized the university’s president, Minouche Shafik.
More than 100 pro-Palestinian protesters have been arrested after refusing to leave an encampment resurrected on campus last week while Shafik delivered testimony before the House education panel.
Columbia is the latest campus to find itself rocked by tensions over Israel's war in Gaza — and Kraft isn’t the first big-name donor to pull his support from an ivy league alma mater entangled in controversy over the fighting.
In October, former U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman pledged to stop giving money to the University of Pennsylvania, where he was once a student and where his family had been prominent donors. Shortly thereafter, billionaire hedge fund founder Leon Cooperman, a Columbia graduate, said he would no longer give money to the university.
