Date: 2024-07-17 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00026697
US STUDENT PROTESTS
PROTESTS CONTINUE
Columbia begins suspending students who refuse to leave encampment
PROTESTS CONTINUE
Columbia begins suspending students who refuse to leave encampment
The protest encampment in support of Palestinians continues on Columbia University's campus in New York. (Victor J. Blue for The Washington Post)
Original article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2024/04/29/columbia-university-protests/
Peter Burgess COMMENTARY
At my age I am a spectator and more than a participant, but my sympathies are with the very much with the students and not very much with the administrators.
And in many ways the idea that there are administrators who are at the top and in charge is a clue to why all of this protest situation is such a mess. I have always been wary of 'administrators' and 'administrations' preferring the more pro-active idea of 'management' with its much stronger focus on making change to get things better!
During my adult life there have been several waves of student protest. When i was a student, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) was a big protest movement. A few years later it was protest against the war in Vietnam ... and ... and ...
There is a lot that needs talking about ... I I will get around to doing come in of it in due course.
But in general ... I am appalled by the clumsy way in which most of the university administastors seem to be handling the situation. On balance ... I am far more supportive of the students who think the way Israel is handling the current situation in a pathetic manner. I am a supporter of a secure Jewish State AND a meaningful homeland for the Palestinian people (2-state solution, if you will) but Jews like Benjamin Netanyahu are rapidly losing the support of people like me for most of his long track record!
Peter Burgess
Written by Kyle Melnick and Laura Meckler ... Molly Hennessy-Fiske in Texas; Ben Brasch, Susan Svrluga and Clara Ence Morse in Washington; and Richard Morgan in New York contributed to this report.
Kyle Melnick ... Kyle Melnick is a reporter on The Washington Post's General Assignment desk, where he covers national and international news.
Laura Meckler ... Laura Meckler covers the news, politics and people shaping American schools. She previously reported on the White House, presidential politics and immigration for the Wall Street Journal, as well as on health and social policy for the Associated Press. She is author of DREAM TOWN: Shaker Heights and the Quest for Racial Equity, about her hometown. Twitter
Published April 29, 2024 at 11:54 a.m. EDT ... Updated April 29, 2024 at 11:25 p.m. EDT
NEW YORK — Columbia University on Monday began suspending students who refused to leave a pro-Palestinian encampment after negotiations with protesters failed and the students ignored a warning that remaining would jeopardize their status on campus.
The university said that the nearly two-week-long protest violated university policies, created an unwelcoming environment for Jewish students and represented a “noisy distraction” for those preparing for exams and commencement. Protesters responded with defiance, encircling the encampment and chanting anti-Israel slogans, including, “It is right to rebel! Israel can go to hell!” and “No more money for Israel’s crimes!” By Monday afternoon, dozens of students were still in the encampment at the center of the university’s Morningside campus, some dancing to Middle Eastern music playing on a stereo. Most of the other protesters had dispersed by late afternoon.
Columbia threatens protesters with suspension 1:30 Columbia University ordered student protesters on April 29 to leave the encampment or face suspension. The negotiation is still at an impasse. (Video: Joyce Koh, HyoJung Kim/The Washington Post) The order to leave the encampment by 2 p.m. Monday marked the latest escalation in the standoff between administrators and protesters that began April 18 when about 100 protesters were arrested by New York police. Pro-Palestinian protests have since grown at college campuses across the country, with arrests Monday at Virginia Tech and Virginia Commonwealth University as well as the University of South Florida in Tampa. About 20 protesters at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio were detained and released but not charged, a university spokesperson said in an email.
At the University of Texas at Austin, police in riot gear arrested 43 pro-Palestinian protesters Monday afternoon, according to George Lobb, a lawyer with the Austin Lawyers Guild representing protesters. Footage posted online from the campus mall showed police pepper-spraying protesters and loading protesters onto buses for transport to jail, which others then attempted to block. “No encampments will be allowed. Instead, arrests are being made,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The total number arrested on campuses nationwide over the past two weeks topped 1,000, according to Washington Post tracking.
But at Northwestern University, after five days of demonstrations, administrators agreed to allow limited pro-Palestinian protests through June 1, the final day of spring quarter. But the compromise reached with protesters did not include cutting ties with Israeli companies, as they had demanded.
At the White House, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Monday declined to weigh in on the protests escalating across the country, saying, “We’re going to continue to say all Americans have the right to peacefully protest. At the same time, we have to call out any hateful rhetoric that we hear. Antisemitism is wrong.”
At Columbia, Monday began with Minouche Shafik, Columbia’s president, announcing that negotiations to end the protest had reached an impasse and that the university would not divest from Israel as protesters had demanded. She offered greater investment transparency and a speedier process for the school to consider divestments in the future.
“One group’s rights to express their views cannot come at the expense of another group’s right to speak, teach, and learn,” she wrote.
Then the university distributed a notice to protesters saying they were violating seven university policies, including those related to disruptive behavior and damage to property. Administrators said those remaining in the encampment or who didn’t sign a pledge to abide by university rules would be suspended and barred from campus, including academic, recreational and residence spaces.
Protest leaders called the university’s plan “disgusting,” and an email from Columbia University Apartheid Divest warned that they would “escalate the intensity of protest on campus.”
“I think everyone is somewhat worried about their future,” said Mohammad Hemeida, a protest organizer and a junior studying history and political science. But “we feel that this is a movement that has the opportunity to bring worldwide attention” to the war in Gaza.
Sueda Polat, a first-year graduate student and spokesperson with the student protest movement, speaks to the media as the encampment on the Columbia University campus continues Monday. (Victor J. Blue for The Washington Post)
It was not immediately clear whether or how Columbia officials would forcibly clear the encampment given that protesters were not leaving voluntarily. They previously said they would not ask NYPD to return to campus after more than 100 protesters were arrested earlier this month.
A university spokesman did not directly respond to a question about whether there would be any effort to remove students who did not leave. “We continue to urge the protesters to remove the encampment and voluntarily disperse,” said spokesman Ben Chang.
Dozens of police officers were just outside the campus, but there was no indication that the university had asked them to move on the protesters on the lawn and a Columbia official said the university did not ask the police to come. NYPD spokesperson Ena Lewis said officers were “just here for presence.” Asked if they could go on campus, Lewis said, “We’re not on campus at this time.”
As the afternoon deadline passed, faculty members in bright orange vests acted as crowd control and handed out gallons of water. Nearby, hundreds of students stood on the steps of a campus building passively watching the protests, while others lay on blankets under shady trees reading.
The university notice, distributed on the last day of classes, said students must identify themselves to a university official upon leaving and sign a statement promising to abide by university policies through June 2025. It also said those who do so will be eligible to finish the semester in good standing. Those who don’t would lose access to academic buildings and residence halls.
“It is important for you to know that the University has already identified many students in the encampment. If you do not identify yourself upon leaving and sign the form now, you will not be eligible to sign and complete the semester in good standing,” said the notice, which was obtained by The Post. “If you do not leave by 2 p.m., you will be suspended pending further investigation.”
Commencement celebrations, set for May 15, are special for many students and their families, the notice said.
“Many of this year’s graduates were deprived of a graduation celebration from high school because of the pandemic. For many of their families, this will be the first time anyone in their family has completed college,” the notice said. “We urge you to remove the encampment so that we do not deprive your fellow students, their families and friends of this momentous occasion.”
The university promised to offer an “alternative venue for demonstrations” after exams and commencement are over.
After the deadline passed, and as some protesters remained in the encampment, Chang told reporters that the university had initiated suspension proceedings, as it had threatened earlier in the day. He did not say how many students were affected.
“We have begun suspending students as part of this next phase of our efforts to ensure safety on our campus,” he said.
Depending on what school policies the students violated, they will be put through one of two university processes that could result in their suspension. Any student suspended will be able to appeal, he said.
The encampment at Columbia University has sparked similar protests over Israel’s war in Gaza on college campuses across the country. The war began when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people, according to Israeli estimates, and taking more than 250 people hostage. Israel launched a counterattack that has killed more than 34,000 people in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
The Columbia encampment, which included hundreds of people at some points, has taken over a grassy lot near the center of the main campus. The protesters have demanded that Columbia administrators break ties with Israeli universities, refrain from seizing land in Harlem that could be used for low-income housing, stop “targeted repression” of Palestinian students and publicly denounce the war.
Protest leaders expressed frustration with the breakdown in negotiations, calling the inconvenience caused by the encampment minor. The administration “didn’t even offer us divestment, so there’s no reason we would take it,” said Sueda Polat, a graduate student studying human rights. “We will not be moved by this intimidation tactic. … We demand divestment. We will not be moved unless by force.”
Asked about the risk of suspension, Polat said, “We would fight. We’re not going to take it lying down.”
While protests around the encampment continued, two students held Israeli flags in front of a library nearby. One of them, sophomore computer science major Jonathan Lederer, said there’s been no productive discussion between protesters and Israel supporters.
“Most of my friends who are Jewish have went home, and they felt totally unsafe, felt totally unwelcome,” he said. “The administration has done nothing to cater to their requests, only to the mob’s requests — the encampment’s requests. So I felt it’s important for them to see that they’re not going to scare us away.”
MORE ON CAMPUS PROTESTS
- 300 more arrested in N.Y.; police break up clashes at UCLA
- Where campus protests have led to arrests across the U.S.
- The situation at Columbia was not equivalent to the Capitol attack
- Police use pepper spray, arrest 13 at VCU pro-Palestinian protest
- How pro-Palestinian college protests have grown, visualized
- U.S. campus protests spread to the Middle East and Europe
- College tensions take hostile turn as expulsions threatened over protests
- Police make arrests at Columbia amid wave of university protests
- Columbia begins suspending students who refuse to leave encampment
- More than 80 protesters arrested at Virginia Tech, school says
- Trump, GOP seize on campus protests to depict chaos under Biden
- For Jewish students, protests stir fear, anger, hope and questions
- Commencement photos and protests define two realities at Columbia
- Why students are protesting at Columbia, other colleges over Israel-Gaza war
- GW University suspends students involved in protest encampments