By Claire Davenport
Update at 3:45 p.m.: The temperature continues to rise on Columbia’s campus. The 2 p.m. deadline set by the administration for protestors to evacuate the encampment passed, but students have refused to leave. Around 50 have stayed inside the encampment while hundreds more circle the perimeter chanting, “Columbia you will see, Palestine will be free” as they shake tambourines and beat drums.
Earlier today, the university issued a written ultimatum to protestors, telling them to leave by 2 p.m. or risk suspension. If suspended, protestors would lose access to university facilities, including their housing and dining halls, and could lose the right to finish the semester.
Some Columbia professors, wearing neon orange and yellow vests, have lined up in front of the encampment in a show of solidarity with the student body.
“The students and faculty make up the real heart of the Columbia community, and we’ve both been disrespected by the administration,” said history professor Adam Tooze, one of the faculty members joining the solidarity show. Tooze said that earlier in the day, he had received what he described as a misleading email from the administration, assuring him that it would be a peaceful day on campus. He learned about the notices student protestors had received through X, the social media platform. Tooze said this is his last day of teaching this semester; his final lecture is scheduled for 4 p.m.
“We shouldn’t be in this position,” he said. “This is all a result of a grotesque mishandlement by the university.”
Tooze said scenes of police arresting students and protestors at other schools across the country is worrisome; he is in the process of getting a green card for permanent residence in the U.S., and said he cannot risk being arrested. Still, while he described the mood on campus today as anxious, he said it also felt celebratory. “We can only hope that the administration has the sense to not call the NYPD back on campus,” he said.
Earlier story: In the sweltering heat on Columbia’s West Lawn, students in the Gaza Solidarity Encampment overwhelmingly voted to stay on campus and continue protesting despite being threatened with suspension.
During the vote on Monday, April 29 at noon, protest leaders said there was strength in numbers, while also telling protestors to make their own decisions about whether or not to stay based on personal risk. Some protestors are on F1 and J1 visas and risk losing their visa status if arrested.
“We want to make sure that all of us here who have invested and dedicated so much time in divestment and liberation for Palestine are on the same page about what we’re fighting for and what we’re willing to put on the line,” one organizer said to applause. They continued, “This is a minor sacrifice on the road to divestment and a liberated and free Palestine.”
This morning, president Nemat [Minouche] Shafik issued a statement by email to the Columbia community stating that the administration and the protestors were not able to come to an agreement. “While the university will not divest from Israel, the university offered to develop an expedited timeline for review of new proposals from the students” the email read.
A notice issued to the protestors around 9:30 a.m. instructed them to gather their belongings, sign a form, and leave the encampment by 2 pm to avoid suspension. They were also informed that if suspended, they will lose access to university facilities, including their dorms. It is unclear what actions the university will take in response to the protestors if they refuse to vacate, or if law enforcement will be brought back onto campus. The encampment is planning a protest of this move by the university at 1 p.m. by the university sundial.
Subscribe to West Side Rag’s FREE email newsletter here.
We are a sanctuary city. I find it hard to imagine that an invalid visa or failure to comply with the laws of this country would have any affect. perhaps they will claim asylum?
Sanctuary city just means that if someone is arrested they will not cooperate with immigration. It does not mean people cannot be reported because they are residing here after their visas have expired.
Good for them!
America was built on protesting!
Bravo students of Columbia University.
Good! So suspend them Columbia!
And if they remain and lose their visas…too bad. No sympathy here!
They should hope for expulsion. Then they can take off their identity-hiding masks and breathe in some fresh air.
As a parent of a high school student about to go to college, and about to pay tons of money for the privilege, I wonder what the parents of these students have to say about this. If my kid got suspended and lost a semester’s worth of tuition, I would be absolutely livid.
My parents paid for my education. If they found out I was involved with something like this, the message would have been something like “get off the lawn and go back to class, or pay your own bills.”
Who would you be “livid” toward: the college or your kid?
Them are fighting words.
All “students” on visas should be arrested and deported.
All others should be suspended from the university.
There has to be a price to pay for turning (or coming out of the closet) as anti Semites.
And what about the *Jewish* students protesting Israel’s policy?
Anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism. This is a dangerous – and un-American – lie
Regardless of your views on the matter, there are students who are unable to attend class in person because of these students’/teachers’/staff’s actions. This is so unfair to them. And other schools cancelling graduation because of security fears?
Give the students ultimatums. Either they stop or get expelled. Teachers/staff, they stop or get fired. Don’t care if they have tenure. Find a clause to get out of it.
I am all for free speech but not if it comes to the cost of students who need to learn. There is a time and a place for everything and if you are disrupting a school’s ability to teach students (which is why it exists in the first place) you lose your rights. Period.
I keep thinking about this old West Wing quote:
“It’s activist vacation, is what it is. Spring break for anarchist wannabes. The black t-shirts, the gas masks? Fashion accessories.”
I wonder how many of the students participating just want an excuse not to take finals. Self-righteous posturing on the lawn (in beautiful spring weather) is so much more fun.
Many Palestinians don’t want Hamas to control their lives or government. Do the students care? No. (Do they even know that? Probably not.)
So Professor Tooze is aware that he might be arrested but still won’t leave? In that case, it’s his own fault if his green card fails. According to his page on the university website, he also enjoys a solid career in his native England and shouldn’t have trouble finding a job there
Prof. Tooze seems to be confused about who is disrespecting whom.
This is not a freedom of speech issue. This is about violating the rules on private property.
Columbia should immediately start expelling – not suspending but expelling – these students.
Columbia owns most of the UWS. Is that private property, then?
Imagine getting suspending from a prestigious university advocating for a people that would stone to death 20-30% of the students protesting merely for existing as themselves.
The Columbia protests are the biggest sham ever and ridiculous however you look at them. Even if their “demands” of divestment were complied with completely it would not make one bit of difference in Israel/Palestine. These privileged kids have succeeded in centering a complex and horrific occurrence abroad around themselves.
More than 60 percent of Americans support a ceasefire.
The right to protest is enshrined in the FIRST Amendment.
American money is funding the genocide in Gaza.
These are all incontrovertible facts – and the protests are growing. Think about what you’ll tell your kids and grandkids if they ask you where you stood on this issue
1. Latest polls show the number to be less than 60%, and that number is not for a one-sided ceasefire, but a two sided cease-fire with all hostages returned.
2. The right to protest is thankfully protected by our constitution. But the right to harrass, assualt, physically intimidate and doing all of that on private property in violation of the owner’s rules are not protected, thankfully.
3. There is no Genocide in Gaza, thankfully. There is a war, instigated by Hamas, being fought in an urban environment where fighters embed themselves with the civilian population, one in which merely .0075 of the population have been killed as collateral damage. The Palestinian population continues to increase year after year. Genocide? Me thinks not.
All incontrovertible facts.
I know my children and grandchildren are learning the history behind the conflict – which dates back over a century – a history, the details of which almost none of these kids actually know. Sadly.
Sure with some caveats. You can’t do it on private property unless said protestors own that property and you can’t do so in creating a public disturbance with traffic or violence. This is where the students went wrong and should read more.
Freedom of speech in the 1st amendment pertains to Congress’ making a law that would be “abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
The university, which is not a public university (it only gets some govt money) has the right to regulate student behavior on its property.
My kids stand with me: against killing of Jews
There are Palestinian Jews. As a reminder: Israel is a country, not a spokesperson for the global population of Jewish people. The international criminal court has found Israel guilty of war crimes, they don’t take these lightly and to charge Israel shows you how bad the Israeli government has treated the citizens of Palestine. The right to self determination is proving to be a problematic phrase as it has come to mean Israel can do whatever it wants, to whomever since they get to determine for “self” what is just and what is wrong.
These are not all incontrovertible facts, and that’s why the protests are so problematic. Netanyahu and the right wing extremists in Israel may be thoroughly deplorable, but Israel still has a right to defend itself against a terrorist group that is committed to Israel’s destruction and uses Palestinians in Gaza as human shields. The loss of civilian life is absolutely horrific–as it is in every war–but that doesn’t mean it is genocide. American money is to blame? How about the fact that Hamas is still holding hostages that were kidnapped on October 7?
Hamas is a government, like it or not.
Israel has been effectively at war with Palestine (with a massively slanted death toll) for decades.
Israel stands formally accused of genocide in the ICC
Americans overwhelmingly do NOT support Israeli military action (source: Gallup https://news.gallup.com/poll/642695/majority-disapprove-israeli-action-gaza.aspx)
Netanyahu refused to negotiate a release of hostages in the week after October 7, preferring to invade Gaza instead (source : Times of Israel https://www.timesofisrael.com/no-doubt-netanyahu-preventing-hostage-deal-charges-ex-spokesman-of-families-forum/)
And not one of the Hamas Apologists call for the release of the hostages. Not one.
Columbia is signaling that they plan to have the large graduation ceremony on May 15th as scheduled. I can’t get on the campus but I see on tv that they have put the speakers’ podium on the steps of Low Library. They have also set up viewing stands on the east side of the campus. I also saw a high stack of folding chairs on the quadrangle. If they are going to suspend the student protestors occupying the lawn there is a question of how to identify who is who. If they are not arrested and booked how will Columbia get the names of who to suspend? Will they pair faces with the ID photos on the Columbia computers. Whatever you think of the college president, I have to think she is sorry that she ever took the job.
This is an amazing display of solidarity with the Palestinian people to witness, kudos to these brave students and professors for standing up for their rights
People forget, there is no “freedom of speech” on a private college campus. The First Amendment prohibits the “state” from infringing on speech, not a private educator/employer. The college can absolutely shut these down and prohibit the students from displaying their banners and “protesting” in the manner they are, and in so doing will NOT offend the First Amendment. Similarly your employer can prohibit you from displaying an anti-israel statement in your office, your employer is not the “state”. For some reason everyone seems to think that the first amendment applies to everyone everywhere, it doesn’t.
I participated in several protests and actions during the 60’s and 70’s and I support this right to do so. But these Columbia students lost me when they started to use hammers etc. to break windows to get into Hamilton Hall to take over the building. This was Jan. 6th all over again. If there were “outside agitators” behind this then who were they? Name them and put all of these conspirators in jail.