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Hours after Columbia University’s 2:30 p.m. Monday deadline for students to leave the encampment to avoid suspension, hundreds of pro-Palestinian students remained on and around the lawn. The tents stayed up.
“We have begun suspending students,” Ben Chang, a spokesperson for Columbia University, said around 5 p.m. Earlier in the day, University President Minouche Shafik said in a statement that they were not able to come to an agreement with student protesters despite “robust and thoughtful offers.”
Shafik’s decision to invite cops on to campus and arrest student protesters earlier this month sparked encampments at dozens of colleges nationwide. Hundreds of these students have faced arrests and suspensions—sparking criticism that administrators and law enforcement are criminalizing peaceful protest. A coalition of 185 progressive social justice and religious groups published an open letter Monday expressing support for the campus encampments in the face of crackdowns by law enforcement. Asked about the use of police force at some campus protests, the White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday that “Americans have the right to peacefully protest within the law” and that “antisemitism is very dangerous.”
Read More: What Professors Owe Our Students Right Now
Student protesters are asking their universities to divest from Israel. “The university is supposed to be an educational institution, not an equity fund,” says Jamil Mohamad, a 32-year-old Columbia University graduate student and Palestinian American standing outside the encampment, on campus grounds. “The student movement is calling for disclosure and financial transparency to understand exactly where the university endowment is being invested and to understand where their…
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