Columbia University Students Organizing ‘Tuition Strike’ to Force School to Divest From Israel
“We demand that a referendum be established for students from all schools of Columbia University on the issue of divestment from companies profiting from or otherwise supporting Israeli apartheid and Columbia’s academic ties to Israel”
Much of the nation’s attention has been focused on controversies at Harvard and UPenn in recent days, but over the last two months Columbia University has shown that when it comes to anti-Israel insanity, they are in a class of their own.
Activists at the school are now organizing a ‘tuition strike’ in an effort to force the school to divest from Israel.
Abigail Anthony writes at National Review:
Columbia Students Organize Tuition Strike over ‘Israeli Apartheid’
Pro-Palestinian students at Columbia University have organized a tuition strike for the spring 2024 semester over “Israeli apartheid.”
“We want our university to refuse to invest in ethnic cleansing and genocide abroad. We refuse to accept our university’s silencing of student voices demanding decolonization on our campus,” reads a document by the students, who intend to announce a tuition strike after 1,000 pledges. “We refuse to allow our tuition dollars to fund apartheid.”
The strike is organized by the Barnard Columbia Abolitionist Collective, the Young Democratic Socialists of America, and Student-Worker Solidarity organizations.
The protesters demand a referendum for students across all Columbia University schools “on the issue of divestment from companies profiting from or otherwise supporting Israeli apartheid and Columbia’s academic ties to Israel.”
You should take a look at the demands these students.
This goes directly to a criticism I have been making about higher education for a few years now. Too many students think that this is the whole point of going to college now. Protests and activism are not now and never should be a primary reason for going to college. Too many people are wasting their time and our money on this.
Dion J. Pierre of Algemeiner has more:
Columbia University Students Organize ‘Tuition Strike’ to Force Divestment From Israel
Anti-Israel students at Columbia University in New York have organized a “strike” to withhold their tuition payments unless the school accedes to their demands, which include purging the campus of investments, trustee members, and academic programs linked to the Jewish state.
“We demand that a referendum be established for students from all schools of Columbia University on the issue of divestment from companies profiting from or otherwise supporting Israeli apartheid and Columbia’s academic ties to Israel,” the students wrote in a document outlining their demands. “This referendum will be binding; if a majority (50% +1) of students vote in favor of divestment, Columbia will immediately divest from all companies profiting from or otherwise supporting Israeli apartheid and end their academic ties to Israel.”
The students also called for Columbia to “immediately remove Board of Trustees members whose personal investments, financial commitments, employment, or other forms of business involvement entail profit from or support for Israeli apartheid.”
The strike for the 2024 spring semester has been organized by the Barnard Columbia Abolitionist Collective, the Young Democratic Socialists of America, and Student-Worker Solidarity organizations.
This is what is happening at Columbia University right now.
"Intifada, intifada, long live the intifada!" @Columbia has two choices:
(1) Expel organizations that explicitly call for violence against Jews and Israelis
(2) Show the world it can't/won't enforce its own rules (and face legal consequences for unequal enforcement) https://t.co/Tuet5lxK7G pic.twitter.com/DDN3CrqSHQ
— Shai Davidai (@ShaiDavidai) December 11, 2023
It’s time for Congress to call Columbia University President Minouche Shafik to come in and testify.
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Comments
Hmm, maybe those students should be told the parable about not getting to dance unless you pay the piper
Yes, Columbia should divest themselves of these children.
But then, it’s Columbia…
The problem with a tuition strike is that there is no protection against scabs.
“Dear Columbia: Here is my application. Accept me, and I will happily pay tuition without you having to divest jackshit. Cordially, Jewish Student.”
When I went to college, you paid tuition or you weren’t a student.
Not seeing a downside for the good guys.
I don’t either.
/You looked far better in your other avatar…
I think feline manatees are fetching.
Bye bye
Expel the leaders, look at who had the biggest mouths or most obnoxious signs, expel them the second day, keep it up until the rest fall in line.
What will be really funny is that if any of these “students” are here under a student visa and Columbia expels them then by law they are supposed to be expelled from the USA.
Which is why they will never do that. (We’ve already seen it with at least one college over the recent College Intifada.)
They may have no choice. If they create a precedent that non-payment of tuition is allowed without consequences their ability to ever collect tuition again becomes put in doubt as this tactic could be used by anyone for any reason and if they expel some but not others lawsuits will follow.
All Columbia has to do is follow their policy late/unpaid tuition. I’m sure everyone participating in the strike signed their tuition agreement when they enrolled.
Know what you call tuition strikers a month after not paying their tuition? Drop outs.
A month? Nah. More like 48 hours after they signed the petition – I would consider that a notice of intent to drop.
Columbia acceptance rate is 4%. Give them the boot and replace them. Consider it a “teachable moment” for the snowflake generation about how the real world works.
This is such an obvious win, did it not depend on Columbia to deliver it — a fatal flaw.
Not to mention they gonna have to vacate Student housing as well, assuming there isn’t some set of asinine eviction hoops to jump through.
Early and often, I would tell my children their mother and I might occasionally care when they were mad & that the rest of the world didn’t.
I once told my son when he was loudly listing his grievances (teen years) that he should check outside to see if their was a line of people waiting to kiss his ass. He was able to make it out the door without any interruptions.
Good let them starve and ignore them
Chain themselves to the fence
https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2023/12/12/ceasefire-activists-occupy-hart-senate-office-building-n2167449
These Columbia students are going to find that there is one thing a university will not tolerate and that is not paying your tuition. You can call for the death of Jews to your hearts delight and Columbia will do nothing to you. More likely, they will support you in your call for genocide. However, if you don’t pay your tuition, that is a bridge to far. You will not be allowed to go to classes if the check doesn’t clear.
Once again, students really don’t grasp the concept of going to college to get an education. They have no business telling the university how to run things. Period.
And, of course, a tuition strike (if I were running things) would simply be a dropout notice. Every single person who signed that would be immediately disenrolled from every class, with Incomplete-Fail assigned as the grade, and the transcript published for every college in America to see.
“Demands.”
When Edward Levi was president of the University of Chicago back in ’68 or so, students occupied the administration building as students at that time were wont to do, and those students had “demands.”
He simply let them stay in the building for about two weeks, allowing no one to enter with food or medication, and he cut off power and water.
Eventually they came out and almost all of them were expelled.
I wish we had university presidents with the same mettle today.
The job of the university president has changed much since that time. I think their primary deliverable is big donations to the institution, not making sure the school is achieving it’s education and research missions. So, if their big donors are Jew haters, college presidents dance to their tune, or at least they protect its manifeststion on campus through inaction and silence. I hope Congress investigates and exposes who is paying colleges to bring about as much Jew & Israel hatred as possible.
Lots of big time Jews need to withhold their money and put pressure on these universities
Publicly
If students occupied the admin building for any cause to the Right of Trotsky, the university president would find the cojones to either do the same thing Levi did, or more likely call in NYPD SWAT. It is all a matter of ideology.
Subotai Bahadur
These brats are so full of themselves that they expect the entire world to recoil in horror because they go “on strike”. LOL.
They may have no choice. If they create a precedent that non-payment of tuition is allowed without consequences their ability to ever collect tuition again becomes put in doubt as this tactic could be used by anyone for any reason and if they expel some but not others lawsuits will follow.
The worst part about this is that their demands are based on lies. Israel is not an apartheid state. There is no attempt to commit genocide against the Palestinians.
Lies, damn lies, and anti-semitism!
Several New York Democratic politicians are members of the Democratic Socialists of America, one of the groups organizing this ‘antizionist’ student ‘protest.’ It appears to be opposite NY Democratic Governor Hochul’s recent statement regarding NY State’s position against antisemitism.
I appreciate Hochul’s position. But, it’s terrifying to consider American politicians could also take a position in favor of antisemitism- anti Zionism, Jew hatred, whatever the label du jour – as appears to be the case with DSA democrats.
Antisemitic crackpots are one thing, the specter of state sponsored antisemitism by antisemitic crackpots is a whole other thing..
“A referendum for students”?? Do these idiots think that the students run the school? They’re not too bright over at Columbia.
It’s funny because Columbia, itself, was always looked at as a sort of colonizer in its area, just west of harlem.
I think it is no-win situation for Leftist Columbia University. If they do not expel them for non-payment of tuition, the university gets hurt. If they do, the agitators get hurt along with Columbia’s Leftist credentials. If they try to find some way to weasel around and leave them on campus; you know that the agitators will escalate. If they burn down the school, what harm does it do to the country as a whole? And it may be an object lesson to the other universities.
Subotai Bahadur
Maybe I’ve forgotten how this works since I graduated over 30yrs ago but I think it goes something like you pay the semester before it starts. Don’t pay then you are not a student so these nitwits are paid up through winter break. If they don’t want to pay for the spring semester then they can mosey on home
From the Demands!, “We refuse to allow our tuition dollars to fund apartheid.”
First of all precious I seriously doubt any of it is your tuition dollars. It is your parent’s or the government or the lending institution or some scholarship. But I am quite certain you did not open your wallet and pull out the greenbacks to cover stepping foot on campus let alone going to class.
Second of all. Columbia is not using tuition money for apartheid. That money goes to meeting other student demands such as research to discover why Columbia students are such shining examples of academic excellence. Free tampons in the men’s room. Pronoun guides. Salaries of instructors who make sure you stay brilliant. Safe spaces. Making sure buildings are not built by DEI graduates. Apartheid is not on the list.
That is actually paid for by a number of alumni and other concerned grown ups. But it has nothing to do with Israel. It has to do with keeping students graduated by Columbia away from any chance of gainful employment that does not involve calling out a customers’ name.
^^^^^THIS^^^^^
That U isn’t required to sell what the studenten want to buy. Take your money and buy what you want somwhere it’s offered. Why is this hard?
My guess is that this is all being scripted and staged at much higher levels than these undergrads
Just by simply getting on the evening news or in the newspapers, it’s a win for them.
What a world we now live in.
Columbia has an endowment worth $13.6 billion. I don’t think they’re going sweat not getting tuition payments from even a few thousand students.
https://www.finance.columbia.edu/content/imc-ceo-statement-fy23-endowment-returns
When they refuse to pay it’s a great opportunity to have the leave the school which is a win for decency
I thought that institution s that discriminate on the basis of religion lost access to federal funds including student loans and nonprofit status