The former press aide of Syrian President Bashar al Assad is now reportedly studying at another university in New York following her controversial acceptance to Columbia University.
Sheherazad “Sherry” Jaafari, who used connections to journalists like Barbara Walters and Piers Morgan to try and land a job, is now currently enrolled at The New School of Social Research, according to Communique, a publication of Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs.
Students at Columbia, along with U.S.-based Syrians, asked the university to rescind Jaafari’s admission due to her work for a government regime allegedly responsible for war crimes.
“To avoid being harassed,” Jaafari did not enroll at the school, she told Communique in September.
Jaafari’s enrollment at The New School had previously gone unreported, according to the publication.
Rashad al-Dabbagh, a spokesman for the Syrian American Council, a grassroots organization based in Illinois, told Communique that “any institution she enrolls in would be indirectly complicit in supporting the regime.”
“I reiterate our earlier stance to reject her admission for her role in advising Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad to manipulate the American public,” Al-Dabbagh continued.
University spokesman Sam Biederman, declined to comment on her enrollment, citing privacy, but said that The New School evaluates candidates on the basis of their merits.