An unknown variety of Columbia college students have been suspended from campus, expelled or had their levels revoked.
New York’s Columbia College stated it has handed down punishments to pro-Palestine scholar protesters who occupied a college constructing final yr throughout a pro-Palestine demonstration.
Punishments vary from multi-year suspensions to expulsions, and revocation of scholar levels, the college stated in a press release on Thursday, following a evaluation of the “severity of behaviour at these occasions” and previous infractions by college students if any.
The college didn’t say what number of college students have been to be punished and declined to call these focused to guard their privateness.
The punishments relate to occasions in April 2024, when scholar protesters briefly occupied Hamilton Corridor throughout a bigger collection of pro-Palestine and pro-Israel demonstrations throughout the college’s Manhattan campus.
Protesters took motion searching for an finish to US help for Israel’s battle on Gaza and for the college to divest from Israeli firms, amongst different calls for.
Throughout the Hamilton Corridor occupation, college students barricaded themselves within the constructing however have been later eliminated by police. The college claims the protesters additionally vandalised the constructing.
Information of the extreme punishment of scholar protesters comes simply days after former Columbia postgraduate scholar Mahmoud Khalil was arrested by US immigration authorities on the behest of the US Division of State over his involvement in pro-Palestinian activism.
Khalil, who’s a everlasting resident of the US and is married to a US citizen, took half in demonstrations till his commencement in December.
Khalil’s deportation has been quickly blocked by a federal decide, however he stays in custody in a detention facility within the southern state of Louisiana.
Final week, US President Donald Trump additionally introduced that he could be cancelling $400m of federal authorities grants and contracts on account of “reputable issues” of anti-Semitism on campuses linked to the pro-Palestinian protests.
