Columbia University Suspends, Expels, Revokes Degrees of Pro-Hamas Activists Who Seized Butler Library

Columbia University has imposed severe disciplinary sanctions — including degree revocation — on upwards of 70 students who perpetrated an illegal seizure of campus property during the final weeks of the academic year and refused to surrender it unless school officials acceded to a list of five demands which, among other things, called for a boycott of Israel and divestment from armaments manufacturers.

As reported by the New York Post on Tuesday, a school official told the paper that Columbia on Monday expelled a “handful” of students and suspended “dozens” of others who stormed and occupied Butler Library on May 7, an action which resulted in two Columbia private security officers being assaulted when a crush of students attempted to breach a human barrier they had formed to prevent additional protesters from joining, and thereby strengthening, the demonstration.

Without stating the number of punishments meted out to the students, Columbia University confirmed the main contention of the Post’s reporting — while announcing one disciplinary measure, degree revocation, to which it was not privy — on Tuesday in an unsigned statement.

“The sanctions issued on July 21 by the University Judicial Board were determined by a UJB panel of professors and administrators who worked diligently over the summer to offer an outcome for each individual based on the findings of their case and prior disciplinary outcomes,” the university said, stressing that the punishments resulted from a consensus reached by officials representing every level of the university. “While the university does not release individual disciplinary results of any student, the sanctions from Butler Library include probation, suspensions (ranging from one year to three years), degree revocations, and expulsions.”

During the May protests, events forced president Claire Shipman — the school’s third new chief executive in two years — to summon the New York City Police Department (NYPD) to Butler Library after negotiations with the protesters to end the occupation hit an impasse, a decision Shipman later justified in a statement as “necessary” for preserving Columbia’s academic mission. The NYPD quickly completed its operation to clear Butler after arriving there during the early evening. Bundling the protesters “20 at a time,” as described by the Columbia Daily Spectator, the officers transferred the students to an NYPD bus used for mass arrests.

On Tuesday, Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI), chairman of the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce, commended Columbia University for penalizing misconduct, a step the institution has allegedly eschewed in the past.

“Columbia has more progress to make before Jewish students can truly feel safe on its campus,” Walberg said in a statement. “The committee’s work has underscored the depth and breadth of antisemitism at Columbia that can’t be ignored. We will continue to investigate antisemitism at Columbia and other universities and develop legislative solutions to address this persistent problem. Our nation’s institutions of higher education must fulfill their legal obligations under federal antidiscrimination law.”

Meanwhile, the group behind the protest and many others which have disrupted academic life at Columbia since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel issued a statement charging that the university’s trustees are conspiring with Jewish organizations and the Trump administration to promote “their Zionist agenda.” The statement concluded by threatening further actions of “struggle,” which were left undefined.

“The sanctions are believed to be part of a federal deal Columbia is about the announce that includes a formal partnership with the zionist [sic] Anti-Defamation League and an agreement to use the [International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s] definition of antisemitism, which equates criticism of Israel with discrimination against Jews,” a non-recognized group which calls itself Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) said in a press release. “The disciplinary letters demand suspended students submit apologies in order to return to campus in one to three years, which some students have stated they will refuse. If those protesters hold their ground by refusing to apologize, the suspensions will convert into de facto expulsions and the number of permanent sanctions will skyrocket.”

Earlier this month, Columbia University announced a series of reforms to address campus antisemitism amid its negotiating a deal to pay $200 million to settle allegations that it exposed Jewish students and faculty to discrimination.

In a statement, Shipman said the university will hire new coordinators to oversee complaints alleging civil rights violations; facilitate “deeper education on antisemitism” by creating new training programs for students, faculty, and staff; and adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism — a tool that advocates say is necessary for identifying what constitutes antisemitic conduct and speech.

Shipman also announced new partnerships with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and other civil rights groups while delivering a major blow to the anti-Zionist movement on campus by vowing never to “recognize or meet with” CUAD.

As previously reported by The Algemeiner, Columbia University’s campus has yielded some of the most indelible examples of anti-Jewish hatred in higher education since the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre in southern Israel set off explosions of anti-Zionist activity at colleges and universities across the US. Such incidents included a student who proclaimed that Zionist Jews deserve to be murdered and are lucky he is not doing so himself and administrative officials who, outraged at the notion that Jews organized to resist anti-Zionism, participated in a group chat in which each member took turns sharing antisemitic tropes that described Jews as privileged and grafting.

Amid these incidents, the university struggled to contain CUAD, which in late January committed infrastructural sabotage by flooding the toilets of the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) with concrete. Numerous reports indicate the attack may have been the premeditated result of planning sessions which took place many months ago at an event held by Alpha Delta Phi (ADP) — a literary society, according to the Washington Free Beacon. During the event, ADP reportedly distributed literature dedicated to “aspiring revolutionaries” who wish to commit seditious acts. Additionally, a presentation was given in which complete instructions for the exact kind of attack which struck Columbia were shared with students.

In September, during the university’s convocation ceremony, CUAD distributed literature calling on students to join Hamas’s movement to destroy Israel.

“This booklet is part of a coordinated and intentional effort to uphold the principles of the thawabit and the Palestinian resistance movement overall by transmitting the words of the resistance directly,” one of the pamphlets given to freshmen students said. “This material aims to build popular support for the Palestinian war of national liberation, a war which is waged through armed struggle.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

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