Columbia Suspends and Evicts Students Involved in Unauthorized Anti-Israel “Resistance 101” Event
But two days later, Columbia looked the other way while students held an unauthorized “All Out for Al-Shifa” solidarity protest.
Four Columbia University students involved in the unauthorized anti-Israel “Resistance 101” event last Sunday, March 24th have been suspended indefinitely and kicked off campus, The Columbia Spectator reports.
As we wrote last week, both Barnard and Columbia had rejected requests to hold the on-campus event, which was then moved to a Columbia residence and held with an online option.
The webinar featured two panelists with ties to terrorists groups: Khaled Barakat, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a United States designated terrorist organization; and his wife, Charlotte Kates, an international coordinator with Samidoun, the Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network designated by the Israeli government as a terror group.
Throughout the evening, speakers praised Hamas and talked about how to make support for Palestinian armed resistance as popular as possible, emphasizing how much their “friends at Hamas and Islamic Jihad” appreciate when college students participate.
Columbia responded quickly to the unauthorized gathering. In a statement issued last Thursday, March 28th, Cas Holloway, Columbia’s Chief Operating Officer, said he had “immediately notified law enforcement and engaged an outside firm led by experienced former law enforcement investigators to conduct an investigation.” It also “banned the outside speakers from campus.” The school also said it would “pursue discipline against any community member who has violated our policies.”
And, to its credit (for just a second), it did so within days, according to the Spectator:
On Tuesday morning, students began receiving emails from Holloway alerting them that they had been “identified as an individual involved in organizing, planning, promoting, hosting and/or attending this unsanctioned and unapproved event,” according to one such email obtained by Spectator. Holloway gave the students until 5 p.m. on Tuesday to contact the private investigator assigned to the case “to be interviewed in connection with this matter” or else “face immediate disciplinary action.”
A suspended student received preliminary charges of disruptive behavior, endangerment, violation of law, violation of University policy, and “failure to comply.” The student was sanctioned with an “interim” suspension, making them unable to participate in classes and extracurriculars or enter campus without prior arrangements through public safety.
The charges pertain to violations of the Center for Student Success and Intervention’s “Standards and Discipline,” which were included in the document sent to the student.
“You may remain in your Columbia residence for 24 hours after which time your access to your residence and dining services will also be suspended,” the document reads.
You might think that after the school finally put its foot down, the Intifada campus crowd would get the message. Instead, they pushed back harder. Yesterday, April 4th, they defiantly held yet another unauthorized event — an “All Out for Al-Shifa” solidarity protest:
This is the war on terror, only it's happening at @Columbia University.
Call your representatives. Now. @SenSchumer. pic.twitter.com/CNLd40dpWA
— Shai Davidai (@ShaiDavidai) April 5, 2024
The students knew it was unauthorized, because two days earlier the school warned them in a letter that if they went ahead with it, they would be sanctioned.
But why did the students have the final say on whether the event took place? If the school knew the prohibited protest was coming, why did it do nothing to stop it?
Even worse, according to Professor Shai Davidai, who recorded the rally, Columbia Senior Vice President Gerald Rosberg actually attended it.
Senior Vice President, @Columbia: “I’d rather not answer questions than be recorded and create more difficulties.” https://t.co/sU46XSlyF1
— Jane Coleman (@JaneBColeman) April 4, 2024
And when Davidai pressed Rosberg to explain why Columbia was letting the unsanctioned protest go ahead, he balked.
This is exactly the kind of mealymouthed answer that got the presidents of UPenn and Harvard ousted following their disgraceful appearances before the congressional committee investigating campus antisemitism last December.
In less than two weeks, Columbia’s president and members of its board are scheduled to testify before the same committee, for the same reason: their failure to protect their Jewish students from pervasive campus antisemitism. And when they do, they should have to answer for why they just allowed an unauthorized anti-Israel hate-fest, the kind that only a week ago they claimed to “reject” and “unequivocally condemn.”
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Comments
Suspension implies a temporary act, a slap on the wrist.
Why aren’t these scumbags being expelled?
If they were foreign students here on education visas (as I suspect) would being suspended and evicted from campus trigger a visa termination and requirement to leave the country?
Yeah. The hearing on their petition to stay will be in 2032.
If I recall correctly it’s actually the school that pulls the plug on the visa at which point the former student has 14 days to exit the country.
Yep it expelled the student visa ends and they are subject to removal.
Theoretically.
Finally, restrictions of speech on campus I can get behind!
The response seems ok but also seems timed to show a minimal effort underway before the date of the congressional hearing
It would pay for the real Americans on campus, if there are any left, to shower the Hamasholes with rotten eggs and fruit.
For starters, anyway.
How about them being placed in stocks?
Rocks no larger than 2″ at widest point, better yet, bricks cut to 1.99… inch cubes. Being slow learners, some pain is necessary.
;
Student demonstrations always have drums, rhyming chants and dancing. This is a celebration, not a protest.
The leftists will always escalate. The administration will always capitulate.
A key point is that the protestors are demanding that Columbia take part in BDS.
Columbia is in New York State which outlawed BDS.
I think that administrators should model reasoned discussion and debate. It should not require a building protest or occupation to get a meeting with an administrator.