Multiple protesters involved in the April anti-Israel protest occupation of Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall were suspended, expelled, and had their degrees temporarily revoked in disciplinary action by the Columbia University Judicial Board, the university’s public affairs office announced on Thursday.
The UJB also recognized disciplinary action for other events last spring, likely in reference to the anti-Israel protest encampment that seized a Columbia lawn and erected tents and installations.
Twenty-two students were sanctioned, claimed protest organizers Columbia University Apartheid Divest, including six expulsions. In reference to three Columbia affiliate Barnard College’s alleged February 28 expulsion of a Hamilton Hall protester and February 24 expulsion of two activists who disrupted a January 21 Columbia Israel history class, CUAD said that the two institutions had expelled a total of nine students had been expelled “for protesting the genocide of the Palestinian people.”
“This is the most number of expulsions ever issued in university history,” CUAD said in an Instagram post. “The university’s extreme reaction is a sign that the administration has lost control of the narrative about student protest and can no longer credibly defend their genocidal record.”
Legal evidence
CUAD asserted that no legal evidence was presented to justify the sanctions, and was a heavy-handed response to divide students. CUAD said that all forms of protests by the student activists were “righteous and unified.”
The anti-Israel group said that it would not allow the disciplinary moves to go unanswered, assuring supporters that together they “have the power to bring an institution that kidnaps and beats its students to its knees.”
CUAD announced a Friday walkout and protest at Columbia’s gates, demanding the reinstatement of students.
The group also connected the United Auto Workers Student Workers of Columbia president’s firing by Columbia to the same crackdown on anti-Israel activism. The union for instructors, teaching assistants, and researchers at the university announced their own rally for Friday, arguing that the move was made before expected negotiations.
