Katya Yindra
On Friday, February 21, Barnard College—an affiliate of Columbia University—expelled two students for their alleged involvement in disrupting a “History of Modern Israel” class exactly one month earlier. In response, Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) launched a week of action, beginning Monday, February 24, with a petition demanding the expulsions be reversed. The following day, students organized a phone-calling campaign targeting Dean Leslie Grinage and Barnard CARES (Community Accountability, Response, and Emergency Services), both of which have played key roles in Barnard’s escalating disciplinary crackdown. Last spring, the college suspended over 50 students for participating in Columbia’s pro-Palestine encampment and forced many to vacate their dorms with only 15 minutes’ notice.
By Wednesday, tensions heightened as protesters forced their way into Barnard’s Milbank Hall, pushing past security guards. Inside, demonstrators chanted, banged on drums, wrote messages on the walls in solidarity with Palestine, and unfurled a banner from the central staircase. Outside Dean Grinage’s office, around 100 protesters gathered, taping “For Hind” to her door in blue masking tape—an homage to Hind Rajab, a five-year-old Palestinian girl murdered by the IDF.
In response to the Milbank occupation, Transport Workers Union (TWU) International President John Samuelsen issued a statement condemning the action, accusing student activists of “harming the blue-collar TWU workforce at Barnard”. However, protesters refuted such claims, with one telling the university’s newspaper that a security guard had placed his arms around a student and twisted until the student fell. According to the account, other demonstrators intervened to help the fallen student, which led to the guard’s injury.
A video posted on social media later showed a public safety officer forcing a protester to leave Milbank out of a window.
Later that night, after much back and forth faculty mediators announced that Grinage and Barnard President Rosenbury had agreed to meet with students the next day at 1 PM. Meanwhile, a letter delivered to the remaining protesters warned that anyone leaving Milbank Hall by 10:30 PM would avoid disciplinary action. With NYPD officers surrounding the building, the group voted to leave.
Despite this agreement, a Barnard spokesperson later sent a letter to alumni insisting that “no promises of amnesty were made, and no concessions were negotiated.” However, videos circulating online show faculty mediators actively negotiating with students on behalf of the administration.
On Thursday, Rosenbury and Grinage added a last minute condition to the meeting: students must be unmasked. CUAD refused to concede anonymity and the meeting never took place.
Instead, protesters rallied outside Barnard’s gates, chanting and drumming before marching uptown to City College of New York (CCNY) to protest a visit from Governor Kathy Hochul, who recently ordered CUNY’s Hunter College to remove a job listing for a Palestinian Studies scholar.
That Friday, another Barnard student was expelled and one was suspended for 3 semesters for alleged involvement in the occupation of Hind’s Hall last spring.
Photo: Students take over Milbank Hall. Credit: Columbia SJP.
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