Columbia University has expelled some students for occupying Hamilton Hall last spring, school officials announced Thursday.
In a university-wide email, Columbia said that the outcomes of a months-long investigation also included multi-year suspensions and the temporary revoking of other students’ degrees.
“Today, the Columbia University Judicial Board determined findings and issued sanctions to students ranging from multi-year suspensions, temporary degree revocations, and expulsions related to the occupation of Hamilton Hall last spring,” read a statement from the university.
“Columbia is committed to enforcing the University’s Rules and Policies and improving our disciplinary processes.”
Columbia became the epicenter for pro-Palestinian protests last spring when an encampment in support of Gaza launched copycat tent cities on American college campuses.
The demonstration came to a head in late April as protesters took Hamilton Hall, damaging property and trapping custodians inside. One officer accidentally discharged a gun, the NYPD said; students documented injuries among nine of the dozens of protesters arrested inside the building.
The university’s escalation in disciplinary action comes as campus tensions are at a recent high following the detention of Mahmoud Khalil, an international-studies graduate students who served as a negotiator during last spring’s campus protests. Khalil, a green-card holder, has not been accused of a crime.
It was not immediately clear how many students had been issued expulsions. The Hamilton Hall protesters included 14 undergraduate students, nine graduate students, and two employees of the university. Columbia spokespeople did not immediately return a request for comment.
The expulsions technically marked the first for pro-Palestinian protest activity at Columbia. Across the street, the affiliated women’s school Barnard College recently expelled three student protesters for their participation in the Hamilton Hall takeover or for disrupting a modern Israeli history class.
The discipline sparked an immediate uproar from student protesters, who in turn stormed both an administrative building and the Barnard library in a week. After a bomb threat at the second occupation, Barnard administrators called the NYPD onto campus, who arrested several activists who did not comply with directions to leave, including some Columbia and Barnard students.
“This ruling is an important first step in righting the wrongs of the past year and a half,” said Brian Cohen, the head of the Hillel at Columbia. “I am grateful to the Rules Administrator and other members of the Administration for their roles in ensuring these cases were resolved.”
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