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Columbia University expels pro-Palestine students, revokes diplomas of others
The announcement comes as the university reels from pressure after the arrest of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, which Trump said would be the first of many.
Columbia University expels pro-Palestine students, revokes diplomas of others
On April 30, 2024, a smaller group of students and their allies barricaded themselves inside Hamilton Hall with furniture and padlocks.
10 hours ago

Columbia University has expelled or suspended some students who took over a campus building during pro-Palestine protests last spring and temporarily revoked the diplomas of others who have since graduated, officials said.

The university said in a campus-wide email on Thursday that a judicial board brought a range of sanctions against students who occupied Hamilton Hall last spring to protest the Israeli carnage in besieged Gaza.

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 behaviors."

The culmination of the months-long investigative process comes as the university is reeling from the arrest of 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 calls a failure to combat alleged antisemitism.

It also comes after the White House pressured the university when it gave it a list of names of people it seeks to deport.

Congressional Republicans have pointed specifically to a failure to discipline students involved in the Hamilton Hall seizure as proof of inaction by the university.

Crackdown

On April 30, 2024, a smaller group of students and their allies barricaded themselves inside Hamilton Hall with furniture and padlocks.

At the request of university leaders, hundreds of New York police stormed onto campus the following night, arresting dozens of people involved in both the occupation 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 on 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 recognised 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.

'Chill and suppress'

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.

SOURCE:TRT World & Agencies
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