Pro-Palestinian Demonstrators Are Punished by Columbia University for Occupying a Campus Building

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators who took over a college building during protests have been disciplined by Columbia University.

Columbia University said Thursday that students who took over a campus facility during pro-Palestinian demonstrations last spring had been subject to a variety of disciplinary measures.

Following the cancellation of $400 million in government grants and contracts by the Trump administration, which cited the Ivy League school’s alleged insufficient response to antisemitism on campus, the statement was made.

Katrina Armstrong, the acting president of Columbia, stated that the university was collaborating with the government to resolve the administration’s concerns and accepted that they were valid. Accusations of racism, Islamophobia, and antisemitism have resulted from the demonstrations and pro-Israel counter-protests.

Columbia said in a statement that its judicial board had reached conclusions and punished students who participated in the Hamilton Hall occupation, with penalties ranging from temporary degree revocations and expulsions to multi-year suspensions. Citing legal privacy limitations, the board—which is made up of students, academics, and staff chosen by the university Senate—did not reveal the names of the individuals reprimanded or the total number of students impacted. The pupils are entitled to file an appeal.

One day before contract talks with the university were scheduled to start, UAW Local 2710, the union that represents Columbia student workers, said that its president, Grant Miner, was one of those ejected. The union called the ruling “the latest assault on First Amendment rights” and denounced it. A representative for the institution chose not to respond to the union’s statement.

Following the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and the ensuing US-backed Israeli offensive in Gaza, Columbia served as a focal point for anti-Israel demonstrations that swept across a number of US college campuses. Among other requests, protesters demanded that the US stop providing military assistance to Israel and that university endowments divest from Israeli-affiliated businesses.