Dozens of Columbia University students were temporarily suspended as of Friday for their alleged involvement with a brief takeover of the main campus library in a pro-Palestinian protest, the Daily News has learned.
At least 65 Columbia students were placed on interim suspension pending further investigation, according to a university official. Another 33 people, including students at affiliated institutions such as Barnard College, have been barred from campus, as have alumni, the person said.
A Columbia webpage on school rules — launched in the aftermath of pro-Palestinian protests on campus — said a school official, known as the “Rules Administrator,” immediately began an investigation on Wednesday after students occupied Butler Library ahead of final exams.
“The Rules of University Conduct seek to balance protecting free expression and achievement of Columbia’s academic mission,” read the update on Friday. “Disruptions to academic activities are in violation of the core principles of the Rules of University Conduct.”
More than 80 protesters were taken into custody while police cleared Butler. A group of demonstrators left the library before the NYPD entered under the condition students identified themselves.
The swift crackdown on student protesters came as Columbia is in active negotiations with the Trump administration over $400 million in canceled grants over allegations it did not do enough to protect Jewish students from harassment. Among the federal government’s conditions for resuming talks was “meaningful discipline,” which it defined as expulsions or multi-year suspensions.
In the quick action, Columbia and Barnard reportedly suspended a number of student journalists, who were at the library to cover the protests, according to campus newspaper Columbia Spectator. Those suspensions were reversed but could have a chilling effect on press freedom — with student reporters being the only media regularly permitted on campus, which remains closed to the public.
Columbia’s response on Wednesday marked a shift in strategy for the university, which required students show IDs before leaving the library or face arrest. Either way, Columbia could more easily identify the protesters, much to the advantage of disciplinarians looking to move fast. It took about 11 months for the university to finish the disciplinary process for the Hamilton Hall occupiers.
“That is done with the expectation of putting sanctions on people,” said a Columbia PhD student, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “If you can identify them, you can punish them.”
She pointed to the tight security measures requiring students to show IDs at the gates: “Assuming those processes are working as they should be, there’s no concern these are people coming onto the campus unauthorized.”
A majority of those arrested appeared to be students, despite claims of a “significant presence of individuals not affiliated with the University.” Of the 81 total arrests, at least 44 were students at Columbia, while 13 were students and one an employee at Barnard, according to the The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative news website.
Two others were students at an affiliate of Columbia, the Union Theological Seminary.
“The students were trying to leave the library,” said a Columbia library-goer, who also declined to give her name. “The public security officers wouldn’t let them leave until they showed their IDs. They weren’t going to do that.”
Final exams at Columbia started on Friday.
With Kerry Burke
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