Topline
Columbia University threatened Tuesday afternoon to expel students who began occupying Hamilton Hall on Tuesday morning, hours after the university locked down the campus for most faculty and students.
Columbia student protesters barricaded the entrance to Hamilton Hall on Tuesdsay.
Key Facts
Ben Chang, a spokesperson for Columbia, confirmed to Forbes in a statement that student protesters inside the building would face “clear consequences,” adding that “this is about responding to the actions of the protesters, not their cause.”
According to Chang, the students who did not leave the encampment Monday but did not join the protesters inside Hamilton Hall will be suspended, which means they will be “restricted from all academic and recreational spaces” and seniors will be ineligible to graduate.
The occupation of the campus building was also criticized by President Joe Biden, who called the tactic “wrong” and “not peaceful” in a statement on Tuesday.
Crucial Quote
“Protesters have chosen to escalate to an untenable situation—vandalizing property, breaking doors and windows, and blockading entrances—and we are following through with the consequences we outlined yesterday,” Chang said.
Key Background
Administrators at Columbia gave protesters a 2 p.m. Monday deadline to clear out their encampment, which was set up to call for the Ivy League university to divest from companies doing business with Israel and the Israeli military. The college threatened protesters with suspensions if they remained past the deadline. “As we said yesterday, disruptions on campus have created a threatening environment for many of our Jewish students and faculty and a noisy distraction that interferes with teaching, learning, and preparing for final exams, and contributes to a hostile environment in violation of Title VI,” Chang said in a statement sent to Forbes. The Spectator, Columbia’s student newspaper, reported suspensions began Monday night. Early on Tuesday morning, a group of protesters broke into Hamilton Hall, a building that houses Columbia’s undergraduate admissions office, renaming it “Hind’s Hall” after a six-year-old Palestinian child killed in Gaza. Columbia University Apartheid Divest, one of the organizations involved with the encampment, said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the protesters inside Hamilton Hall were part of an “autonomous group.” Columbia closed its Morningside Heights campus on Tuesday morning, only allowing access for students living in on-campus residence halls and essential staff.