You could just feel the Columbia administration hoping that the student protesters would be reasonable, that avoiding further arrests, engaging in extensive negotiations, meeting them a bit of the way on divestment, and, in general, bending over backward would convince the students to go home. Well, some did, and then the remaining ones stormed an administration building overnight, upping the ante considerably. If the cops aren’t going to be called in and threats of, as far as I can tell, pretty watered-down suspensions (“suspended pending further investigation”) are all that are on the table, why wouldn’t the protesters act like they own the place?

Now, the most obvious way to bring the proceedings to a quick conclusion is to begin expelling students, who will be free to continue their acts of mayhem at a state school or community college. Since Columbia doesn’t seem to have the stomach for that, it has to be prepared to continue to let itself get yanked around by a relatively small collection of haters and freaks.