Read our editorial on student occupations here.
On Monday, July 21, Columbia University suspended and expelled nearly 80 students for participating in a pro-Palestine demonstration inside the university’s main library this past May. According to a press release from Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), this move marks the harshest disciplinary crackdown for any political protest in the university’s history. These numbers do not yet include the disciplinary charges issued by Barnard College.
This latest wave of repression came just days after Columbia unveiled a new set of initiatives to “combat antisemitism” on campus. The university is now formally partnering with several notorious Zionist organizations, including the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, founded by billionaire Robert Kraft, who withdrew millions in donations to the university in April 2024 over pro-Palestine student protests, and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a lobbying group with a history of surveilling activists, denying the genocide in Gaza, and suppressing the study of Palestinian history on college campuses who work with them.
Columbia also committed to adopting the widely-condemned definition of antisemitism from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), which conflates criticism of Israel and Zionism with antisemitism. This redefinition has direct implications for the recently disciplined students who are also facing additional charges of “discriminatory harassment” under Columbia’s Office of Institutional Equity. It remains unclear whether these students will face double jeopardy now that their initial charges have been finalized.
Far from viewing Columbia’s actions as a reluctant surrender to reactionary pressure, students argue that the administration is using federal threats as political cover. As CUAD’s press release states, “[Columbia’s] trustees use the Trump administration as cover to escalate their Zionist agenda.”
Just two days after student charges were delivered, Columbia’s acting president Claire Shipman announced that the university will pay $200 million in a federal settlement and $21 million to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Shipman described the payout as necessary to secure the return of $400 million in frozen federal grants and to protect Columbia’s $1.3 billion in annual federal funding, which had been slashed by the Trump administration in March as part of the crackdown on the Palestine solidarity movement and its general austerity measures.
Though Shipman has insisted the settlement would not allow the government to dictate academic content or hiring, the actual terms suggest otherwise. The agreement requires Columbia to create “training materials to socialize all students to campus norms and values,” and to vet international student applicants through questions “designed to elicit their reasons for wishing to study in the United States.”
Columbia is also required to comply with immigration enforcement requests, and to provide the federal government with records of all disciplinary actions involving international students—specifically those facing suspension, expulsion, or arrest, including for actions like trespassing. Most of the students disciplined for the May 7 library action are also facing legal charges for trespass.
The $221 million settlement is more than just a ransom payment to the federal government. It is a financial blow to Columbia, signaling that the Palestine solidarity movement is not only enduring but continuing to show the university that there is a price to be paid for genocide profiteering.
Students remain clear that the university’s efforts at intimidation will not succeed. In communiqués published on CUAD’s Substack The Barricade, participants in the May 7 action state they are unapologetic and undeterred, citing the backdrop of genocide, mass starvation, and the destruction of Gaza’s education system as moral justification. During disciplinary hearings, students defended their actions unequivocally, asserting they have nothing to apologize for. Following news of their suspensions and expulsions, students issued a new statement reaffirming their resolve: “We will not be deterred. We are committed to the struggle for Palestinian liberation.”
Photo: May 7 demonstration at Columbia’s Butler Library by pro-Palestine activists. The Worker
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