On Columbia University’s website, the office of the president asserts that its educational diversity initiatives are “designed to recruit and support a community of students, faculty, and staff that is diverse in every way.”
This support apparently does not apply to Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, Jewish, and other students, staff, and faculty who stand against occupation, apartheid, and genocide. Former president Shafik greenlit the use of state force against students and faculty who were peacefully engaged in the American tradition of protest. The university has reportedly repeatedly short-cut its own policies and implemented new ones to sanction anti-genocide protestors. The university faces at least one lawsuit and a Department of Education investigation into reported discriminatory practices targeting Palestinians and their supporters.
Columbia University has reportedly targeted Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, and other anti-genocide student activists since late 2023. In a lawsuit filed against Columbia University, the New York Civil Liberties Union and Palestine Legal accused the university of “violating its own policies” by suspending Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). In their filing, attorneys state that the two groups had participated in a “peaceful campus protest on November 9, 2023, that was sponsored by a coalition comprised of over 20 groups. The next day, university officials singled out SJP and JVP and suspended them for alleged violations of university procedural rules governing campus events. The two groups were given no notice of the planned suspensions and no opportunity to respond to the charges or to contest them. None of the other groups involved in the event faced disciplinary action.”
The university had reportedly altered policies and language regarding student group events following several protests held on campus by the two groups and then referenced newly introduced language in their decision to suspend them. David Lurie, the president of the Columbia chapter of the American Association of University Professors, exclaimed that university administrators’ reported decision to make updates to student group policies on their own superseded “well-established, extensive procedures” for the sanctioning of student speech and believes that the new policies were created “in order to use it exactly as [the university] did.” Joseph Howley, a professor at the university argued that there is “no precedent for simply banning a student group – certainly not like this, unilaterally, without transparency.”
In January 2024, students at Columbia University were reportedly sprayed with a chemical agent by two individuals while at a protest in support of Palestine. Following a lawsuit by the person allegedly behind the spray the university asserted that the spray was a novelty gag gift. At least 10 students reportedly sought medical care. Dozens of students reported symptoms such as burning eyes, nausea, headaches, abdominal and chest pain, and vomiting. The NYPD reportedly told one of the impacted student’s legal team that it was “law enforcement-grade chemicals.” A university spokesman also reportedly made an initial statement seemingly blaming students for the alleged attack, claiming that their protest was “unsanctioned and violated university policies and procedures.”
In April 2024, Columbia University was reportedly “aided by ‘an outside firm led by experienced former law enforcement investigators’” to investigate students for an unauthorized event. Students claim that a private investigator had visited a Palestinian student’s home and rattled “the doorknob as if trying to break in.” Students also report that investigators “demanded to see the private text messages of students in order to ‘comply’ with the investigation.”
On April 18, more than 100 Columbia University and Barnard College students were arrested after President Shafik reportedly authorized the New York Police Department to sweep the encampment established by students in protest of the continued attacks on Palestinians in Gaza. The Barnard and Columbia chapter of the American Association of University Professors issued a statement condemning the suspensions and arrests “in the strongest possible terms”. It claimed that the “acts violate the letter and the spirit of the University Statutes, shared governance, students’ rights, and the University’s absolute obligation to defend students’ freedom of speech and to ensure their safety.” On April 30, after the encampment was re-established, hundreds of NYPD officers in riot gear entered Columbia to sweep protesters from the campuses. Students were reportedly kicked and pushed to the ground, and one was allegedly thrown down a flight of stairs and did not receive medical attention for over an hour. One police officer had “accidentally” fired a gun, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
In May 2024, the U.S. Department of Education announced that Columbia was under investigation following a civil rights complaint filed by Palestine Legal, alleging discriminatory treatment of Palestinian students and their supporters.
In September 2024, CAIR warned Columbia University in a demand letter against turning over to Congress the disciplinary records of students organizing on campus. According to CAIR, those records are the constitutional equivalent of membership rolls that the U.S. Supreme Court has determined to be protected by the First Amendment. Around the same time, The Intercept reported that after the subpoena, Columbia’s administrators apparently changed an intent that “most of the students arrested in the past year for protesting against Israel’s war on Gaza would be allowed to return to campus for the fall.” Instead, “dozens of student protesters have received notices that their cases are being fast-tracked to university disciplinary hearings, short-circuiting Columbia’s own investigation process. Scheduled interviews with students have been canceled, and cases are moving directly to the University Judicial Board, which can expel or otherwise punish students.”
