Columbia University announced on Thursday that it had disciplined students who occupied the Ivy League school’s Hamilton Hall last spring with measures including “multi-year suspensions, temporary degree revocations and expulsions.”
“The return of suspended students will be overseen by Columbia’s University Life Office,” added the school, which is the subject of a federal probe for alleged inaction in response to Jew-hatred. “Columbia is committed to enforcing the university’s rules and policies and improving our disciplinary processes.”
The Trump administration announced recently that it is cutting about $400 million in federal funding to Columbia for its lack of response to antisemitism.
“‘Some students.’ Not enough,” wrote Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), sharing an Associated Press headline that stated, “Columbia University says it has expelled, suspended or revoked degrees from some students who seized a building during a pro-Palestinian protest.” (Foxx was chair of the House Committee on Education and Workforce during several high-profile hearings about Jew-hatred with university presidents.)
“This ruling is an important first step in righting the wrongs of the past year and a half,” stated Brian Cohen, executive director of Columbia Barnard Hillel. “I am grateful to the rules administrator and other members of the administration for their roles in ensuring these cases were resolved.”
“Discipline for a building takeover last spring? It appears that the wheels of justice at Columbia turn slowly and only when the federal cash clogging the gears has been removed,” wrote Jay Greene, senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Education Policy.
“The lesson here is that it takes $400 million in funding cuts to get an Ivy League school to expel some (not all) of the students who vandalized school property, illegally occupied a building and ground campus life to a halt,” wrote Aaron Sibarium of The Washington Free Beacon. “How much would it take for more meaningful reforms?”
In April 2024, a mob of anti-Israel protesters barricaded themselves in Hamilton Hall and briefly held at least one university staff hostage. The New York City Police Department removed them from the building.
Gil Zussman, professor of electrical engineering at Columbia and chair of the electrical engineering department, wrote on Thursday that he commended the university for making “tough decisions,” and “it is really sad that we are at a situation in which such decisions need to be made.”
“However, finally demonstrating that breaking university rules has consequences is an important first step towards going back to the core missions of research and teaching,” added Zussman, whose Columbia biography notes that he was educated at Israeli schools and was an engineer in the Israel Defense Forces from 1995 to 1998.
