Over 1,400 academics signed an open letter committing to “boycott” events “held at or officially sponsored by Columbia University and Barnard College” until the university expunges the offenses from protesting students’ records and the presidents of both institutions resign.
“We reject as ludicrous the idea that the Columbia administration was forced to call in the NYPD because of the need to ‘protect students from rhetoric that amounts to harassment and discrimination,’” reads the open letter. “Indeed, it is the University’s own decision to arrest, intimidate, criminalize, and punish students that has endangered their safety. If a university would rather arrest its own students than listen to their demands— if it would rather imitate the military tactics of a state that has destroyed every university in Gaza, burying students and colleagues under the rubble, than divest from it —then is it still a university?”
The boycotting academics are demanding that 1) Barnard College, Teacher’s College, and Columbia University expunge all charges (including suspensions) from and restore campus privileges to the students who protested, as well as reinstate suspended student groups Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine and Columbia Jewish Voices for Peace, 2) Columbia president Minouche Shafik and Barnard president Laura Rosenbury resign, and 3) the police presence on campus be removed.
“University administration must remove police presence from campus and end the targeted repression of students involved in anti-genocide protesting, both on and off campus,” reads the letter.
The open letter further endorses the demands of the Columbia University “Gaza Solidarity Encampment,” which include divesting from “companies and institutions that profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide and occupation in Palestine,” terminating programs with universities in Israel, severing ties with the New York Police Department, providing reparations for low-income Harlem residents, ending “the targeted repression of Palestinian students and their allies on and off campus,” and releasing a statement calling for a cease-fire.
Until the demands are met, the academics who signed the letter will not participate in events hosted or sponsored by Columbia or Barnard. Additionally, they will not “collaborate” on events, workshops, grants, or co-authored papers with Columbia or Barnard faculty who also hold administrative roles.
Notable academics who signed the letter include gender theorist Judith Butler, Princeton African American studies professor Ruha Benjamin, CUNY professor of Anthropology and Urban Education Mark Lamont Hill, and Princeton professor and accused plagiarist Kevin Kruse.
Princeton University faculty and staff published an open letter on Monday announcing a “boycott” against Columbia and Barnard. The letter similarly called for reinstating the “wrongfully suspended” students, removing the NYPD from campus, and reversing the suspension of the student groups Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine and Columbia Jewish Voice for Peace. Signatories included Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Dan-el Padilla Peralta, and Behrooz Ghamari.
Barnard president Laura Rosenbury said in a statement on Monday that the college offered to lift interim suspensions for anti-Israel protesters without a previous record of misconduct.
“The vast majority of the students on interim suspension have not previously engaged in misconduct under Barnard’s rules. Last night, the College sent written notices to these students offering to lift the interim suspensions, and immediately restore their access to College buildings, if they agree to follow all Barnard rules during a probationary period,” Rosenbury said.