Columbia University President Nemat Shafik testified before the House on Wednesday that the school has had to ramp up its number of student misconduct cases in the wake of campus antisemitism since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel.
Shafik, who goes by Minouche, was being questioned by House Education and Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) when she said multiple students had been suspended or put on disciplinary probation in connection with unauthorized pro-Palestinian protests on campus.
Since the Oct. 7 attack, “these are more disciplinary actions than have been taken probably in the last decade at Columbia,” Shafik said at the hearing titled, “Columbia in Crisis: Columbia University’s Response to Antisemitism.”
“I promise you, from the messages I’m hearing from students, they are getting the message that [violating] law will have consequences,” she added.
In total, Shafik said 15 students have been suspended and six have been placed on disciplinary probation.
The university president explained the school’s new system involves sending an immediate warning letter, written in consultation with the school’s Task Force on Antisemitism, when a student does something such as participating in an unsanctioned rally on campus. The policy involves a “hierarchy of punishments” depending on criteria, such as how many violations occur and the severity of them.
“Those letters, if there had been repeat offenses, stay permanently on the record of those students for the rest of their time at Columbia,” Shafik said. “And of course, if other misconduct occurs, it can lead to suspension and, in extreme cases, expulsion.”
However, Shafik also explained that the disciplinary system was previously inadequate to respond to the sort of actions the school needs to take now.
“I have absolutely no hesitation in enforcing our policies,” she said. “When I first started at Columbia, our policies, our systems, and our enforcement mechanisms were not up to the scale of this challenge. They were designed for a very different world. They were designed for a student cheating on an exam.”
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Much of the discussion at the hearing focused on how to respond to antisemitism on campus and what kinds of restrictions are permissible under a First Amendment framework.
“Most of our demonstrations, in fact the vast majority, have been safe,” Shafik said, noting that one of the most difficult questions at hand is “actually [to] clarify where language crosses the line from protected speech to discriminatory or harassing speech.”