Columbia University announced on Thursday that it had disciplined students, who occupied the Ivy League school’s Hamilton Hall last spring, including with “multi-year suspensions, temporary degree revocations and expulsions.”
“The return of suspended students will be overseen by Columbia’s University Life Office,” added the school, which is the subject of a federal probe for alleged inaction in response to Jew-hatred. “Columbia is committed to enforcing the university’s rules and policies and improving our disciplinary processes.”
The Trump administration recently announced that it is cutting about $400 million in federal funding to Columbia for its lack of response to antisemitism.
“This ruling is an important first step in righting the wrongs of the past year and a half,” stated Brian Cohen, executive director of Columbia Barnard Hillel. “I am grateful to the rules administrator and other members of the administration for their roles in ensuring these cases were resolved.”
“Discipline for a building takeover last spring? It appears that the wheels of justice at Columbia turn slowly and only when the federal cash clogging the gears has been removed,” wrote Jay Greene, senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Education Policy.
In April 2024, a mob of anti-Israel protesters barricaded themselves in Hamilton Hall and briefly held at least one university staff hostage. The New York City Police Department removed them from the building.
The majority of expulsions and degree revocations target students who engaged in the sit-in and had to be removed by police.
Gil Zussman, an Israeli professor of electrical engineering at Columbia and chair of the electrical engineering department, wrote on Thursday that he commended the university for making “tough decisions,” and “it is really sad that we are at a situation in which such decisions need to be made.”
Pro-Palestinian student groups have said they are planning a protest in response to the university’s actions.
