What’s New
A day after Columbia University’s president testified in a congressional hearing that she would do everything in her power to root out antisemitism while protecting free-speech rights, Nemat (Minouche) Shafik authorized New York City police to clear an encampment of hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters who’d gathered in the center of campus.
On Thursday, just before 1:30 p.m., police officers wearing riot gear entered campus and took protesters into custody, The New York Times reported. They loaded students onto buses and removed about 50 tents as the police activity drew even more protesters to the area.
Columbia Spectator, the university’s student newspaper, reported that more than 100 people were arrested.
A spokesperson for the New York Police Department said Thursday afternoon the department would not release any details until all police activity has ended, and noted that not everyone who has been placed in custody has been arrested.
The Details
According to a statement released by Shafik to the university community, the people in the encampment “violated a long list of rules and policies” and were notified verbally and in writing of the violations. (The statement did not detail the rules and policies that were violated.) Shafik said efforts to resolve the situation were unsuccessful, leading her to authorize police Thursday morning to clear the encampment “out of an abundance of concern for the safety of Columbia’s campus.”
“This is a challenging moment and these are steps that I deeply regret having to take,” Shafik said in the statement. “I encourage us all to show compassion and remember the values of empathy and respect that draw us together as a Columbia community.”
A Columbia spokesperson said in a statement that students who participated in the encampment are suspended. “We are continuing to identify them and will be sending out formal notifications,” the statement said. The university declined to say how many students have been suspended as of Thursday afternoon.
Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a coalition of pro-Palestinian student organizations, said in a blog post that “the arrests follow a week of complete militarization of our campus, harrowing disciplinary actions against students, and an enforced press blackout on campus.”
“Columbia may arrest our organizers,” CUAD said in the post, “it may tear down our encampments; but it cannot dampen our commitment to divestment of all finances, including the endowment, from corporations that profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide, and occupation in Palestine; and fully discloses all of Columbia’s investments from divest from the genocide.”
The Backdrop
On Wednesday, Shafik and other Columbia officials testified before the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce. For over three and a half hours, congressional leaders repeatedly interrupted Shafik as she tried to talk about the need to balance safety with free speech.
In one exchange, Rep. Virginia Foxx, a Republican from North Carolina and chairwoman of the committee, questioned whether Columbia officials have adequately enforced rules to protect students.
Foxx criticized the university for only sending “warning letters” to students, according to records provided by Columbia, after they’d participated in an “unauthorized” protest earlier this month. “The students don’t seem to be afraid of your letters,” she said.
Shafik said that she would not hesitate to enforce the university’s policies on student conduct and protests, which were updated earlier this year, and noted that administrators had suspended 15 students for events related to the Israel-Hamas war.
Columbia’s previous policies “were not up to the scale of this challenge,” Shafik said. She believes that students “are getting the message.”
Two Ivy League presidents, Elizabeth Magill, of the University of Pennsylvania, and Claudine Gay, of Harvard University, resigned in the aftermath of a similar congressional hearing in December. Shafik was unable to attend that hearing because of a travel conflict.
Colleges nationwide have struggled to balance free speech with the need to protect students after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.
The police activity on Thursday echoed another in 1968, when police forcibly removed Columbia students protesting the Vietnam War and other issues, resulting in 712 arrests and 148 injured.
What to Watch For
This story is continuing to unfold, so watch to see what happens to the students who were involved, how students respond to the police and university actions on campus, and how the university continues to balance free speech with campus safety.
