How To Appoint a Commissar (Part 11) - Barnard President Laura Rosenbury
A leading women and gender legal theorist tries to stop Hamas riots on her campus; hilarity ensues
Comrades: Barnard is The Longhouse.
Barnard is the women’s college attached to Columbia. Last week, rabid Palestine protestors put campus under siege with full throated support from the faculty. They refused to evacuate even after a bomb threat because they are the spiritual suicide bombers of the west. For those keeping score at home, progressive women who can’t define what a woman is are wearing head and face coverings to support Islamists who consider them property with no rights. If they behaved this way in Gaza, they would be whipped and stoned. Since it’s an “elite” university in New York City, they can do whatever they want.
Where are the adults? Who is in charge? Have no fear, Barnard President Laura Rosenbury is here! Students showed their respect for her by hanging an effigy of her. Last year, Columbia President Minouche Shafik stepped down after losing control of the mob. Commissar Laura is even cringier and probably won’t last the semester. Both were appointed in 2023 and will likely set records for shortest tenures at their disgraced institutions. Now they have been stripped of $400 million in federal funding. Let’s translate her Kim Jong Un style coronation announcement.
Laura Rosenbury, 53, a distinguished scholar and currently the first woman dean at the University of Florida’s (UF) Levin College of Law, was enthusiastically elected by the Barnard College Board of Trustees to become the College’s ninth president in its 134-year history. Rosenbury will assume the new role on July 1, 2023.
Making herstory! Like many demoralized commissars, she has two Harvard degrees. When Rosenbury served as Dean of University of Florida’s Law School, faculty provided highly negative feedback in a survey. The enthusiastic Board of Trustees evidently did not take this into consideration and, like her, is also not receptive to criticism.
“The Dean does not lead; she bullies and berates. I’ve never encountered a more self-centered, egotistical, untruthful, and revenge-seeking person in my life. The Dean will not even LISTEN to any ideas that she perceives differs from hers. She shuts down conversation, shouts and rants, curses, pounds the table, bullies, and belittles. She will lie to your face. If she were engaging this behavior as a practicing lawyer, she’d be subject to disbarment. It IS THAT bad.”
Rosenbury — a leading women and gender legal theorist with expertise that spans reproductive rights, children’s rights, and sexual harassment and abuse — will succeed Sian Leah Beilock, who led Barnard from 2017 and is stepping down to become Dartmouth College’s first woman president.
“It is an honor to be able to pass the baton to Laura Rosenbury, who has been a champion for women’s legal rights throughout her career as an attorney and as an academic,” said President Beilock. “I am thrilled to welcome her into this amazing community of students, faculty, alums, and staff and am confident that the College will continue to soar under her leadership.”
How would Hamas treat a women and gender legal theorist with expertise in reproductive rights and sexual abuse? Beilock is making herstory at Dartmouth. Remember the commissar rule - anytime one is replaced, the new commissar is even further left. Harvard’s Claudine Gay stepped down as president, but still has a $1 million/year job as a professor. UPenn’s Liz Magill was named a senior fellow at Harvard Law School after her disastrous congressional testimony and stepping down from her presidency.
In addition to being the first woman at UF Law to hold the permanent position as dean, Rosenbury also served as Levin, Mabie & Levin Professor of Law, teaching feminist legal theory, employment discrimination, children and law, and family law.
“We believe we found the most outstanding candidate to become the ninth President of Barnard College. Laura’s appointment is a culmination of a life and career dedicated to empowering women,” said Cheryl Glicker Milstein ’82, P’14, chair of Barnard’s Board of Trustees. “She is a committed leader and scholar whose values and passions align with Barnard’s mission. Our students will have the incredible privilege of being led and inspired by her.”
Cheryl is married to Philip Milstein, the eldest son of billionaire real estate developer Seymour Milstein. They donated $25 million to fund The Cheryl and Philip Milstein Center for Teaching and Learning at Barnard, which in a delicious moment of irony was occupied by the protestors. Two of their children describe themselves as “activist philanthropists”, aka Antifa. The family’s therapists must be making fortunes. Imagine lighting money on fire to give to people who hate you.
Search Committee co-chairs Ina Drew P’13 and Ann Sacher ’84 said Rosenbury’s appointment resulted from a comprehensive, community-wide process that launched last summer with a series of listening sessions to gain input from Barnard students, faculty, staff, alumnae, and parents. A 16-member Search Committee then began the rigorous search, which also considered hundreds of anonymous submissions to a community-wide survey, with the support of the leading global executive search firm Russell Reynolds Associates.
“I could not be prouder of the process that led to Laura’s selection as our next president,” said Drew, who is also vice chair of the Board of Trustees. “It was not just her incredible biography and remarkable scholarship that led to the enthusiastic decision but also her character and belief in the mission of our liberal arts college. Her devotion to an arts and science education, thoughtful and strategic approach to leadership, and striking emotional intelligence demonstrated that Barnard and Laura Rosenbury are a perfect match.”
Commissar committees waste absurd amounts of time and resources to achieve poor results. Can you imagine the passive aggressive debates? Ina Drew was the chief investment officer for JPMorgan Chase. She resigned after the company suffered a trading loss of $9 billion in 2012. A Senate investigation found that she did not understand the trading strategy and lied by stating she had not seen the "decision table", which outlined the various trading options for her. Oops! At least she raked in enough compensation to donate a multi-million dollar scholarship to Barnard. She should teach a class about making horrific decisions and failing up cuz diversity!
Sacher added, “We are a premier liberal arts and women’s college, and throughout Laura’s career she has consistently been at the forefront of championing both women’s interests and higher education. Her expertise spans some of the most pressing women’s and gender issues of our time, so we’re fortunate to have her at the helm ensuring students leave our campus prepared to meet the moment.”
“It’s an honor to be named Barnard College’s next president, and I look forward to carrying forth its legacy as the leading academic institution for the advancement of women,” Rosenbury said. “It was immediately clear how committed and close-knit the Barnard community is, and I’m deeply grateful to the Board of Trustees and Search Committee for entrusting me to continue its undeniable trajectory as a global frontrunner in preparing women to make their mark on the world.”
Congrats, ladies. You are no longer a premier college. None of you know it, but the world laughs at you. The community is clearly committed to the woke jihad. Bow to the Barnard Longhouse Red Guards!
Barnard students when they “grow up”:
For more commissars:
Another spot on, scathing commentary of the hypocrisy and toxicity of the left. These participants are like hamsters on a doom-scroll wheel, in a cage they’ve created themselves.
I remember when UNC-Greensboro set up the Women's Studies program with money donated by my formerly Republican father in honor of my formerly head -of-the-Republican Women something or other -turned democrat stepmother for a birthday present. I remembered , when I got over my revulsion at the whole thing, "This movement is not going to prove to be a good thing."As a woman, I think women unwittingly ceded their true power during the "women's movement". They looked at the world through a very jaded, narrow lens. After so many years, MY now very jaded narrow lens sees them as having cut off their noses to spite their faces. Whatever common sense they once had has been allowed to shrivel and mummify through disuse. JUST MY EXPERIENCE AND OPINION!!!