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Columbia professor who fled communism resigns, says university is becoming communist
The College Fix ^ | NOVEMBER 6, 2019 | JEREMIAH POFF

Posted on 11/08/2019 9:23:37 AM PST by Mount Athos

A Romania-born academic says he recently left his tenured position at Columbia University because the Ivy League school is “on its way toward full blown communism,” according to a Romanian TV interview translated by a Romanian-American immigrant.

Prof. Andrei Serban, an award-winning director, complained about the increasing social justice demands he faced in the theater department in the interview, which aired on Romania’s TVR1 Oct. 26. One prominent example he gave: pressure to admit a transgender applicant who auditioned as Juliet from “Romeo and Juliet.”

Andy Ionescu, a native Romianian speaker who immigrated to the United States in 1999, told The College Fix in a Twitter message that he translated the interview.

He said it was likely the first time that Serban made his resignation publicly known. Columbia still lists Serban as an active professor. Media relations did not respond to an email from The Fix, and Serban’s department did not return a voicemail. Serban did not respond to an email.

The TV host expresses incredulity at multiple points in the interview, seemingly shocked that the American higher education system is headed toward communism. Serban fled from the ideology, which ruled Romania for much of the 20th century.

Serban says in the interview that after a faculty member retired, the remaining professors in the department were called in to a meeting to discuss a replacement.

It was at this meeting that the dean of the art school told them that there were “too many white professors, too many heterosexual men,” and that it would be best to hire a minority or a woman, or a gay man.

Serban, who was the director of the hiring committee, says that he was told that it could not be someone like him because he is a man that has been “married, a heterosexual man who has children.”

The professor says that he then asked if they could choose a straight white male if the most qualified candidate happened to be so, and was promptly told that they could not. “I felt like I was living under communism again,” he said.

A second incident involving a male-to-female transgender student was the final impetus for Serban to resign, according to the translated video.

While reviewing applicants to the theater school, the transgender student prepared Juliet’s monologue from “Romeo and Juliet.”

Serban says that he could not believe that this person could become Juliet. After his colleagues expressed displeasure with him for stating as much, Serban resigned, saying that he could not violate his principles.

According to his faculty bio, Serban is an accomplished theater and opera producer who served as the director of the Romanian National Theater and won a Tony Award.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: communism; education
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1 posted on 11/08/2019 9:23:37 AM PST by Mount Athos
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To: Mount Athos

Most universities today are simply Marxist indoctrination centers.


2 posted on 11/08/2019 9:30:55 AM PST by Lurkinanloomin (Natural Born Citizens Are Born Here of Citizen Parents_Know Islam, No Peace-No Islam, Know Peace)
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To: Mount Athos

3 posted on 11/08/2019 9:31:00 AM PST by \/\/ayne (I regret that I have but one subscription cancellation notice to give to my local newspaper.)
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To: Mount Athos

A dude can play the role of a chick. But if a non-Asian tries to play an Asian role, look out!


4 posted on 11/08/2019 9:31:37 AM PST by Larry Lucido
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To: Mount Athos
"Hey everybody, I'm Chinese!"


5 posted on 11/08/2019 9:33:15 AM PST by Larry Lucido
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To: Mount Athos

Columbia University and Communism

https://historyhalf.com/columbia-university-and-communism/


6 posted on 11/08/2019 9:34:50 AM PST by gattaca ("Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives." Ronald Reagan)
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To: Mount Athos

It seems that Prof. Andrei Serban does not know much about the history of Columbia University. It’s been a hotbed incubator of communism since the 1920s.


7 posted on 11/08/2019 9:36:12 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: Mount Athos

Good for him taking an unpopular but fully logical position.
“I’m not playing these ‘Let’s pretend’ games with you people. You are discriminating based on sexism, ageism, and social status. The same social constructs that you claim to despise.
I’m not going to pretend that it’s okay when WE do it, anymore!”


8 posted on 11/08/2019 9:36:41 AM PST by lee martell
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To: Mount Athos; SaveFerris; PROCON; FredZarguna; mylife; Lil Flower; Corky Ramirez; CopperTop; ...

I have heard it said that Ceausescu was not shy about dictating.


9 posted on 11/08/2019 9:37:29 AM PST by Gamecock (Time is short Eternity is long It is reasonable that this short life be lived in light of eternity)
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To: Mount Athos

Becoming?!


10 posted on 11/08/2019 9:40:53 AM PST by CatOwner
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To: Mount Athos

Professor Serban will soon be declared a “non person” by Columbia.


11 posted on 11/08/2019 9:44:01 AM PST by COBOL2Java (Hillary Clinton: Just like Joe with only half the dementia.)
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To: Lurkinanloomin
Most universities today are simply Marxist indoctrination centers.

Universities used to teach students how to think.

Now they teach them what to think.

12 posted on 11/08/2019 9:45:39 AM PST by COBOL2Java (Hillary Clinton: Just like Joe with only half the dementia.)
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To: Mount Athos

And Columbia’s reply would be, “Don’t overreact about communism; you Romanians just didn’t do it right.”


13 posted on 11/08/2019 9:49:23 AM PST by the OlLine Rebel (Common sense is an uncommon virtue./Federal-run medical care is as good as state-run DMVs)
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To: Mount Athos
This is so sad, that he fled Communism for freedom in a Capitalist country only to see his new home taken over. Sadly, the takeover didn't happen overnight. When interviewed about Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand said she was shocked after escaping from newly Communist Russia in the 1920’s to discover the inroads the Communists had already made within the intelligensia of the US academy. Ideas move the world slowly not overnight.
14 posted on 11/08/2019 9:50:59 AM PST by The Westerner (Protect the most vulnerable: get the government out of medicine, education and our forests)
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To: COBOL2Java

>> Universities used to teach students how to think.

>> Now they teach them what to think.

It’s so much easier when you have the answers.


15 posted on 11/08/2019 9:51:15 AM PST by Pearls Before Swine
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To: Mount Athos

Columbia has been Communist for a long, long time Professor.


16 posted on 11/08/2019 9:53:44 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog (Patrick Henry would have been an anti-vaxxer)
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To: Mount Athos

And people were ridiculed when they warned the campaign for “equal rights” could lead to quotas.


17 posted on 11/08/2019 9:54:02 AM PST by Bratch (IF YOU HAVE SELFISH IGNORANT CITIZENS, YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE SELFISH IGNORANT LEADERS-George Carlin)
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To: Mount Athos

The funny thing is women weren’t allowed to be actresses in Shakespeare’s time, so a biological male playing Juliet is historically accurate if less aesthetically pleasing.

That said, he was right to resign from an institution that clearly discriminated on the basis of race, sex, and sexual orientation.


18 posted on 11/08/2019 10:01:12 AM PST by FormerFRLurker (Keep calm and vote your conscience.)
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To: Mount Athos

The unpleasant fact is that many companies, probably all universities, and all government-run agencies practice discrimination against straight White males in hiring.
Word comes down from the top that they WILL hire a “minority.”


19 posted on 11/08/2019 10:01:46 AM PST by I want the USA back (The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it. Orwell.)
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To: gattaca

Columbia U was chosen by immigrants from The Frankfurt School (Germany) to be their US HQ for advancing their social Marxism agenda for making America socialist.

They coopted professors in other teaching colleges, to indoctrinate their students to be Marxism-friendly. Then, take that to the public schools they would soon be teachers in. They got into the NEA and other unions.

Many many Marxist-friendly big players went to Columbia U and are in positions of power now. One in particular is Obama.


20 posted on 11/08/2019 10:08:24 AM PST by polymuser (It's discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit. Noel Coward)
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