Columbia University said Monday it has begun suspending pro-Palestinian protesters who remained in an encampment at the university despite a 2 p.m. EDT deadline from the school to disperse, as the Ivy League school—and colleges nationwide—grapple with weeks of tense protests over the Israel-Hamas war.
Columbia students who do not disperse from the encampment by 2 p.m. Monday reportedly face ... [+]
Columbia said in a 5:30 p.m. update on its website it was suspending students who did not abide by the 2 p.m. deadline “to ensure safety on our campus,” while students who left the encampment and agreed to identify themselves would be allowed to finish the semester.
The university—which has been dealing with the encampment since April 17—gave students the deadline by distributing leaflets warning students who don’t leave could face “probation, access restriction, suspension for a term or more and expulsion,” according to multiple reports.
The encampment was not dismantled by the deadline, though, and some Columbia faculty and students surrounded the encampment while others remained, CNN’s Omar Jimenez posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
If students left the encampment, identified themselves and signed a form agreeing “to abide by all University policies through June 30, 2025, or the date of the conferral of your degree, whichever is earlier,” the university said they would be eligible to complete the semester in good standing.
Columbia President Minouche Shafik announced in a statement Monday morning the school and students “were not able to come to an agreement” after nearly one week of negotiations.
Shafik said the university would not divest from Israel—which was the protestors’ main request—but offered the negotiating students a number of concessions, including investing in health and education in Gaza, developing “an expedited timeline for review” of proposals to the body that considers divestment matters and publishing investment information more frequently.
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Students at Columbia University formed the encampment to protest Israel’s war in Gaza and Columbia’s investment practices nearly two weeks ago—the same day Shafik testified before Congress about antisemitism at the university. One day after the encampment began, the university allowed the New York Police Department to sweep it, resulting in more than 100 arrests for trespassing. The university said Jewish students have felt unsafe as a result of the protests, and many have left campus. In Monday’s statement, the university said the encampment “created an unwelcoming environment” for Jewish students and faculty, “external actors” just outside of the protest have created a “hostile environment” that violates Title IX and is unsafe, and that it is a “noisy distraction” for students during exams. In a statement to the New York Times on April 21, the Columbia University Apartheid Divest protest group said it was “frustrated by media distractions focusing on inflammatory individuals who do not represent us” and the group’s members “firmly reject any form of hate or bigotry.” As a result of the encampment and other outside protests, the school canceled classes one day last week and switched to a hybrid schedule for the remainder of the semester. Columbia’s protest has led to similar efforts at a number of other universities across the country, leading to more arrests nationwide.
Some student protesters have rallied against the deadline. In a post on Instagram, Columbia University Apartheid Divest recommended students not sign the forms requested by the school, saying the administration has shown it “cannot be trusted.”