Two separate protests broke out on Columbia University’s campus on Wednesday—one in the afternoon at a university entrance gate near St. Paul’s Chapel and another in the evening at Earl Hall gate entrance, where students tied themselves up in a show of support for Mahmoud Khalil, an anti-Israel activist facing deportation.
A university spokesperson told JNS that the protesters who tied themselves to the St. Paul’s Chapel gates were removed for violating university rules.
“Individuals complied with the demand for identification but refused to leave the area,” the spokesperson stated. “The chains were removed by Columbia’s Public Safety and the individuals were escorted off campus.” (As part of a recent agreement with the Trump administration, Columbia has said that it will require protesters, upon request from safety officers, to remove masks or otherwise provide identification.)
“We will follow the process established in the rules of university conduct for enforcing violations,” the spokesperson told JNS. “Our focus is on preserving our core mission to teach, create and advance knowledge while ensuring a safe campus for our community.”
The New York City Police Department told JNS that no arrests were made.
The protest was organized by Columbia University’s chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, an anti-Israel group which alleged that Columbia’s trustees collaborated with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain Khalil, a recent Columbia graduate and leader of anti-Israel protests on campus, according to social-media posts.
The Ivy League school stated on Wednesday that “no member of Columbia leadership or the board of trustees has ever requested the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on or near campus.”
“Consistent with our longstanding practice and the practice of cities and institutions throughout the country, law enforcement must have a judicial warrant to enter non-public university areas, including university buildings,” the university added.
‘Take control of its campus’
After the university removed students from St. Paul’s gate on Wednesday afternoon, another protest was organized at a different entrance gate, according to a university spokesperson.
“Last night, several individuals chained themselves to the fence of Earl Hall. These individuals were given warnings that the space had been declared closed by the university and that they would face disciplinary consequences if they did not disperse,” the university said.
It added that three people remained, and only two of them provided identification when asked. All three were told about violating the school’s rules and told “they would be escorted off campus by public safety if they did not disperse,” Columbia stated. “Following these repeated warnings, the chains were removed by public safety, and the individuals were escorted off campus.”
The university stated that it is investigating the rule violations and “will follow the process established in the rules of university conduct for enforcing violations.”
“Our focus is on preserving our core mission to teach, create and advance knowledge while ensuring a safe campus for our community,” it stated.
Carly Gammill, director of legal policy at the StandWithUs legal department, told JNS that the university’s acknowledgment that students violated its rules suggests that the school is making an effort to implement the reforms to which it recently committed. (StandWithUs filed a lawsuit against Columbia and Barnard College on behalf of Jewish and Israeli students on Feb. 21.)
“For months, Columbia University allowed itself to be overrun by students and activists engaged in blatant legal and policy violations, creating an unsafe environment for Jewish students,” Gammill told JNS.
“Suits like the one we filed, alongside enforcement action by the administration and a steady stream of negative publicity, have finally, it seems, encouraged Columbia to begin to take control of its campus,” she said.
The latest protests reflect continued disruptions that the university failed to address in the past, according to Gammill.
“Blocking access to entrances and exits to campus obviously interferes with the ability of students to access campus, and these were some of the types of things that were happening during the encampment in the spring of last year at Columbia,” she said.
“Had they actually enforced their codes of conduct when this type of behavior was happening and negatively impacting Jewish students,” she said, “then perhaps we wouldn’t be in a situation today where students continue to feel emboldened to do the same activities.”