Columbia College has expelled, suspended or revoked levels of scholars who occupied a campus corridor throughout pro-Palestinian demonstrations in April 2024, the college stated on Thursday.
College students have been issued with punishments based mostly on the “severity of behaviour at these occasions” and previous infractions, if any, a press release from Columbia learn.
The transfer is the college’s response to a crackdown on scholar activists in the USA who led pro-Palestine demonstrations final yr amid Israel’s war on Gaza, and referred to as for his or her faculties to chop monetary ties with Israel.
It additionally comes after the federal government lower $400m in federal funding for Columbia on March 7. The college was one among 60 establishments threatened with additional cuts in a letter from US authorities this week.
Right here’s what we all know in regards to the menace to Columbia and the way it has responded:
What does the US authorities’s letter to Columbia and different universities say?
On March 10, the US Division of Schooling sent letters to 60 establishments, informing them they have been underneath investigation for “antisemitic harassment and discrimination” and warning them of potential legislation enforcement actions in the event that they don’t “shield Jewish college students”.
Distinguished establishments equivalent to Columbia, Harvard and Princeton have been among the many faculties which obtained the discover. All 60 faculties profit from US federal funding.
The letter cited Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which the training division stated mandates universities to “shield Jewish college students on campus, together with (by offering) uninterrupted entry to campus services and academic alternatives”.
Secretary of Schooling Linda McMahon was quoted as saying within the missive: “The Division is deeply upset that Jewish college students finding out on elite US campuses proceed to concern for his or her security amid the relentless antisemitic eruptions which have severely disrupted campus life for greater than a yr. College leaders should do higher.”
SHALOM COLUMBIA: The Trump Admin, led by @USEDgov and the Activity Pressure to Fight Antisemitism (@TheJusticeDept, @HHSGov, & @USGSA), has canceled ~$400M in federal grants to @Columbia over its failure to guard Jewish college students from antisemitic harassment. pic.twitter.com/CavoXbhhvx
— The White Home (@WhiteHouse) March 7, 2025
Earlier, on March 7, the Division of Schooling introduced a $400m funding lower to Columbia particularly, citing a “failure to guard Jewish college students from antisemitic harassment”.
The college was a significant hub throughout a wave of campus protests that swept the US final yr as Israel’s war on Gaza escalated. On April 30, a gaggle of scholars, workers and alumni occupied Hamilton Corridor, an instructional constructing on campus, earlier than being forcibly cleared by New York police on request of the college’s management.
How has Columbia responded? What motion has it taken towards college students?
Columbia has not publicly responded to the letter from the training division.
Nevertheless, in a press release to workers and college students on March 10, Columbia’s interim president Katrina Armstrong stated funding cuts would impression “analysis and significant features of the College”, and would have an effect on workers and college students. A few quarter of the college’s greater than $6bn yearly operation prices are met by federal grants.
Then, on Thursday, Columbia introduced that college students concerned in final yr’s Hamilton Corridor protest have obtained multiple-year suspensions or outright expulsions following the college’s investigations. The months-long course of was carried out by the college’s College Judicial Board, and included hearings for every scholar concerned.
“Columbia is dedicated to imposing the College’s Guidelines and Insurance policies and enhancing our disciplinary processes,” the college stated.
March 13, 2025 College Assertion Relating to UJB Determinations: https://t.co/C8Hn518ZId pic.twitter.com/dgr71AzMeX
— Columbia College (@Columbia) March 13, 2025
Others who’ve since graduated could have their levels revoked, it added. The names and exact variety of college students sanctioned by the judicial board weren’t revealed.
In line with The Related Press information company, a number of different college students have been notified by college officers that also they are underneath investigation for sharing social media posts in help of Palestinian folks or becoming a member of “unauthorised” protests.
‘Harmful occasions’: How have college students and others reacted?
In an opinion printed within the college’s publication Columbia Each day Spectator in February, a physique of scholar staff accused the college’s management of not taking a stand.
“The Pupil Staff of Columbia despatched you a letter asking for assurance that Columbia would shield noncitizen college students, college and workers. In response we obtained a obscure reply out of your workplace, which appeared to reference a very totally different matter. Somewhat than standing up for the Columbia group, the College’s management has stood by or, worse, accelerated and enabled these threats,” the physique wrote.
Columbia College authorities this week warned college students on the establishment’s journalism college about posting on social media, in keeping with reporting by The New York Occasions. Non-US residents have been particularly warned to keep away from publishing about Gaza or Ukraine.
“When you’ve got a social media web page, be certain that it’s not full of commentary on the Center East,” the journalism college’s dean, Jelani Cobb informed college students. “No one can shield you … these are harmful occasions,” he added.
“Historical past exhibits {that a} college that doesn’t advocate for the educational freedom of its personal members is opening itself to additional assaults on educational freedom sooner or later,” stated historian Eraldo Souza dos Santos, who’s at present affiliated with Cornell College.
“Columbia seemingly not solely ignored Khalil’s calls for cover, but additionally has been prepared to collaborate with the present administration in its efforts to criminalise dissent on campus.
“It ought to, as a substitute, be attempting, inside its personal capacities, to supply authorized and public-facing help to a technology of scholars who belong to the identical lengthy battle towards segregation and apartheid that took form between the Sixties and Nineteen Eighties,” he informed Al Jazeera.
What occurred within the lead-up to all this?
Authorities have additionally cracked down straight on college students concerned in pro-Palestine demonstrations.
Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia scholar who acted as scholar negotiator with college authorities till his commencement in December, was arrested and detained by immigration authorities on Saturday, March 11.
Khalil is Palestinian and was raised in Syria. He holds everlasting residency within the US and is married to a US citizen, however now faces deportation. Khalil’s lawyer Amy Greer informed reporters that he was inside his Columbia College-owned dwelling when officers of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) company arrived to take him into custody.
Posting on his Fact Social platform after Khalil’s detention, Trump stated it could be the “first arrest of many”.
Republicans within the US Congress have scrutinised and criticised Columbia’s disciplinary course of because the Hamilton Corridor occasion. In a February letter to the establishment, Republican representatives demanded that Columbia hand over information of scholars concerned in campus protests or face funding cuts.
This week, Khalil and 7 different unnamed college students at Columbia and the affiliated Barnard Faculty filed a lawsuit in a federal court docket in Manhattan in an try to completely block a US congressional committee from acquiring scholar information from the establishments.
In the meantime, protesters have been gathering in help of Khalil. On Thursday, dozens of demonstrators who flooded the foyer of Trump Tower in New York with banners that learn “Free Mahmoud,” have been arrested by police.
