As students and protests return to campus, Columbia tests new restrictions and leadership

On Sunday evening, about 50 protesters marched down the sidewalk, blowing whistles and drums, banging pots, pans and the iron barriers of the campus’s closed gates, and chanting pro-Palestinian slogans.

Reuters Agency

August 31, 2024, 1:05 PM

Last Modified: August 31, 2024, 01:11 pm

Protesters gather as students and families arrive for a rally outside the main entrance gate of Columbia University, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in New York, U.S., August 25, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs/File photo

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The start of the new school year is only days away, but student protesters have already loudly returned to the campus of Columbia University in New York, the epicenter of the pro-Palestinian protest movement that has spread to schools around the world this spring.

Blowing whistles and banging on drums, pots and pans and the iron railings of the campus’s closed gates, about 50 protesters marched down the sidewalk Sunday evening, shouting pro-Palestinian chants as a New York Police Department surveillance drone hovered overhead.

Outside the gates, more than 1,000 new Columbia students gathered for a commencement ceremony. Dr. Katrina Armstrong, Columbia’s new interim president, managed to cut through the din of protesters to describe to the new students her vision of a campus where open debate is possible, where no one feels excluded.

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Columbia University officials are hoping to avoid a repeat of the protests that rocked the university earlier this year and ended in April when hundreds of armed police searched the campus and arrested more than 30 students who barricaded themselves in an academic building.

Since spring, college administrators across the United States and beyond have grappled with Columbia-inspired tent camps that have spread to their own campuses, followed by pro-Israel counterprotests. Some administrators have also called in the police; a minority have reached agreements on demands to cut financial ties with Israel.

“Effectively managing protests and demonstrations allows us to advance our educational and research missions while enabling free speech and debate,” Armstrong, dean of Columbia’s School of Medicine, wrote in a campus-wide email last week.

She has been serving as interim leader since Minouche Shafik resigned as president earlier this month after facing criticism over her handling of the protests, including a vote of no confidence from the arts and sciences faculty, angered by her decision to call in police to arrest students.

The pro-Palestinian protests are being led by the Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) coalition, which includes student groups demanding that the university stop investing in arms manufacturers and other companies that support the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.

Over the summer, mediators had little success in trying to restart negotiations between the Columbia administration and CUAD, according to Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian student who is one of CUAD’s lead negotiators.

“The university should treat students as students, not as threats to Columbia and the Columbia brand,” he said. Columbia declined requests for interviews with administration officials, and a spokesman declined to answer questions about the talks with CUAD.

On Friday, Columbia University’s Anti-Semitism Panel, established in November 2023 and led by professors, released its second report, finding that many Jewish and Israeli students have reported “painful experiences of hostility” from other students — including protesters — and faculty, and that some of that behavior may violate anti-discrimination laws.

The report describes a rise in anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and anti-Arab prejudice on campus following Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel and Israel’s subsequent war in the Gaza Strip. Some Jewish students said they were spat on, harassed for wearing Jewish symbols and faced angry demands to defend Israel or Zionism, while Jewish Israeli students reported harassment for serving in the IDF. Some pro-Palestinian Jewish students involved in the protests said they were attacked or called “self-hating Jews.”

CAMPUS CHANGES

As faculty and students return to Columbia University ahead of classes resuming Tuesday, they are already noticing new restrictions and other changes on campus.

The south lawns, surrounded by hedges that were once yellowed by tents, are now lush and green. Public safety officers guard the entrance, and new signs announce that camping is prohibited by school regulations.

The campus gates, which for decades were open from the surrounding city streets, are now locked under a new restricted-access system in which guards allow entry only to those with Columbia IDs and pre-registered visitors.

Most days, CUAD students set up a small table draped in a Palestinian flag by one of the main entrances to campus and hand out flyers and brochures, some designed with new students in mind.

On campus, officials have set up fences and gates on wheels that can be rolled along sidewalks to block off small areas. A group of senior New York Police Department officers inspected the cordons during a campus tour last week.

Mariam Jallow, the new president of the Columbia College Student Council, said she is optimistic about the new leadership.

“It’s a fresh start that we really need,” Jallow, a history student, said of Armstrong. “She doesn’t have a lot of the burdens that President Shafik had, and there’s still a lot of resentment and hurt from last year.”

Jallow, who is not a member of CUAD, said it is not easy to represent a diverse group of students, but he noted that the core demands of CUAD, which was founded in 2016, have long enjoyed broad support among the student body at Columbia’s main undergraduate school. CUAD called for a referendum of Columbia College students in 2020, and about 60% voted to divest Columbia from Israel; that figure rose to about 76% in a referendum in April.

Over the summer, Columbia administrators continued to pursue disciplinary proceedings against more than 60 students, including Khalil, accused of violating campus rules by participating in CUAD protests.

Some students say the university is prolonging the investigations to discourage protests. A Columbia spokesman said the school is “working to expedite” the investigations.