The protests last week at Columbia University by pro-Palestinian demonstrators were a mere echo of what we saw last year, thanks to a crackdown by the Trump administration.
However, the issues run much deeper than money; the educational flaws that birthed these sentiments must be curtailed, and, above all, the safety of students, especially Jewish students who were mercilessly harassed over the past year and a half, must be ensured once more.
In an apparent attempt to rekindle the pro-Palestinian protest movement at Columbia University, 80 demonstrators were apprehended last week after attempting to take over the main library.
On Wednesday afternoon, protesters broke through a security gate and hung banners in the library. Security blocked them from leaving without identifying themselves; none agreed to do so. Most could be seen wearing masks and keffiyehs in footage from the scene, and a standoff with security took place.
After around four hours, New York City police were called in for backup. This was the first such call since a different takeover in April 2024.
Intense attempt at negotiations
According to acting Columbia University president Claire Shipman, two public safety officers were injured. According to reports, several demonstrators were injured as well.
Shipman, in a statement, said that the protesters caused “substantial chaos” and “posed a serious risk to our students and campus safety.”
The background for all this is an intense attempt at negotiations between the university and the Trump administration, after it threatened to cut over USD 400m. of federal research funding from the school for what it said was a failure to protect Jewish students from harassment, which alarmingly scaled up since the Israel-Hamas War began. US President Donald Trump had lashed out at Columbia over the campus protests, saying they were antisemitic and showed a failure to protect Jewish students.
This isn't limited to just Columbia – the administration's scrutiny was applied to several prominent schools. The administration also canceled hundreds of international student visas after the waves of protests began across US campuses last year.
Since then, the university has been more strict, but the fact that it took this long is already an embarrassment and a statement.
The Trump administration said later that it was “encouraged” by the university's response. Columbia said that the protesters would face consequences. New York Governor Kathy Hochul said, “Everyone has the right to peacefully protest. But violence, vandalism, or destruction of property are completely unacceptable.”
The university, which can be seen as a microcosm for the US educational landscape as a whole, seems to be taking back control from what can only be described as a mob. However, the wrongful approaches and clear lack of knowledge, nuance, and context by the students on an issue, a war that is taking place thousands of miles away from them, is the deeper underlying issue, one that will take years to stem and heal.
These students are arriving on campuses in their late teens or early 20s, armed with the education they received up until that point, their exposure, their biases, and the maturity needed to be able to hold a respectful conversation with someone they disagree with.
Part of the job of universities is to encourage such growth, to be a greenhouse for nuance and respect for the other side, and, most importantly, for learning how to garner information in a responsible way, especially when the issue is far away and as complicated as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
While the protests were going on inside, a demonstration took place outside on the street. “No cops, no K.K.K., no fascist USA,” they chanted. This sentence reflects a stance that is so very far from where it should be. Is this what America wants its young generation to be thinking?
Universities can’t completely rewrite their students – nor should they – but if what happened at the campuses over the past year-and-a-half is any indication, they still have so much work to do.
Where are the dialogue groups? Where is the respectful discussion? Where is the understanding that before one is pro- or anti-Israel, they first must be informed? Most importantly, where is the guarantee that students will feel safe in all corners of a venerated educational institution?
The steps that the Trump administration took seem to be at least starting to work already, but Jewish students don’t yet feel completely safe, and that remains everyone’s problem. Long-term educational goals are needed, as are short-term safety concerns.
