A student protester leans out of a window at Hamilton Hall on the Columbia University campus in New York. AP
The university said in a campus-wide email that a judicial board brought a range of sanctions against students who occupied Hamilton Hall last spring to protest the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, which has killed nearly 48,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children over 15 months.
Columbia did not provide a breakdown of how many students were expelled, were suspended or had their degrees revoked, but it said the outcomes were based on an “evaluation of the severity of behaviours.”
The culmination of the monthslong investigative process comes as the university is reeling from the arrest of a well-known Palestinian campus activist, Mahmoud Khalil, by federal immigration authorities last Saturday. President Donald Trump has said the arrest would be the “first of many” such detentions.
At the same time, the Trump administration has stripped the university of more than $400 million in federal funds over what it alleges is a failure to combat campus antisemitism. Congressional Republicans have pointed specifically to a failure to discipline students involved in the Hamilton Hall seizure as proof of inaction by the university.
The building occupation followed a tent encampment that inspired a wave of similar demonstrations at college campuses across the country, calling for a ceasefire in the Israeli war on the Palestinian territory.
On April 30, 2024, a smaller group of students and their allies barricaded themselves inside Hamilton Hall with furniture and padlocks in a major escalation of campus protests.
At the request of university leaders, hundreds of New York police stormed onto campus the following night in a violent crackdown on anti-war protesters, arresting dozens of people involved in both the seizure of the building and the encampment.
At a court hearing in June, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said it would not pursue criminal charges for 31 of the 46 people initially arrested on trespassing charges inside the administration building.
But the students still faced disciplinary hearings and possible expulsion from the university.
The final sanctions announced Thursday followed a lengthy process that involved hearings for each student led by the long-running University Judicial Board.
Some students who joined the encampment but did not participate in the building takeover learned that they would not face further discipline beyond their previous suspensions.
“With respect to other events taking place last spring, the UJB’s determinations recognized previously imposed disciplinary action,” the university said in a statement.
The disciplinary process drew scrutiny from House Republicans, who demanded university administrators turn over disciplinary records of students involved in campus protests or risk billions of dollars in federal funding.
On Thursday, Khalil and seven students identified by pseudonyms filed a lawsuit seeking to block a Congressional committee from obtaining such records for students at Columbia and Barnard College, a women's institution affiliated with Columbia.
Filed in federal court in Manhattan against the two schools; the Republican-led House Committee on Education and the Workforce; and its chairman, Republican Rep. Tim Walberg of Michigan; the lawsuit seeks a permanent injunction barring Congress from forcing the schools to provide the records and the universities from complying.
Last month the committee sent a letter demanding that Columbia and Barnard provide the records or risk federal funding. The plaintiffs argue in the complaint that the committee is abusing its power in an attempt “to chill and suppress speech and association based on the viewpoint expressed” and the investigation “threatens to significantly infringe on First Amendment rights.”
In a statement emailed by a committee spokesperson, Walberg said, “This lawsuit changes nothing.”
The information requested “is critical to its consideration of legislation on this issue” and necessary to “hold schools accountable for their failures to address rampant antisemitism on our college campuses,” he added, conflating pro-Palestinian protests with allegations of antisemitism—an issue often weaponized by staunch supporters of Israel.
Barnard spokespeople did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment, and Columbia declined to discuss the pending litigation.
Separately, a newly-created disciplinary board has brought a flurry of new cases against students — including Khalil — who have expressed criticism of Israel, triggering alarm among free speech advocates.
Khalil was not among the protesters accused of seizing Hamilton Hall.
*This story was edited by Ahram Online.
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