Saturday, 14 September 2024
Saturday, 14 September 2024
The new school year is still days away, but student protesters have already made a noisy return to Columbia University's New York campus, the epicentre of a pro-Palestinian protest movement that spread to schools around the world this spring.
Blowing whistles and banging drums, pots and pans and the iron railings of the closed campus gates, about 50 protesters marched on the sidewalk on August 26 and bellowed pro-Palestinian chants. Inside the gates, more than 1,000 new Columbia undergraduates had gathered for a convocation ceremony.
Columbia administrators are hoping to avoid a repeat of the protests that roiled the university earlier this year, which culminated with hundreds of armed police officers sweeping the campus in April to arrest more than 30 student protesters who had barricaded themselves inside an academic building.
Since the spring, college administrators across the U.S. and beyond have grappled with tent encampments inspired by the Columbia protests spreading to their own campuses, followed by pro-Israel counter protests. The pro-Palestinian protests have been led by Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), a coalition of student groups demanding the school end its investments in weapons manufacturers and other companies that support Israel's military occupation of Palestinian territories.
Over the summer, mediators had little success trying to revive negotiations between Columbia administration and CUAD, according to Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian graduate student who is one of the main negotiators on behalf of CUAD. As faculty and students return to Columbia ahead of classes resuming on September 3, they are already noticing new restrictions and other changes to its campus.
The hedge-lined south lawns that had been yellowed by tent encampments are now lush and green, with public safety officers guarding the entrances and new signs noting that camping is banned by school rules. Gates to the campus that have been kept open for decades to the surrounding city streets are closed under a new system restricting access, with guards allowing in only those with Columbia ID and pre-registered guests.
Most days, CUAD students set up a small table draped with a Palestinian flag to the side of one of the main campus entrances, handing out flyers and pamphlets, some designed with new students in mind. Across campus, officials have set up fences and gates on wheels which can be rolled across walkways to cordon off small areas.
A group of senior officers from the New York Police Department inspected the cordons during a campus tour last week. Mariam Jallow, the incoming elected president of the Columbia College Student Council, said she was optimistic about the new leadership.
Over the summer, Columbia administrators continued disciplinary proceedings against more than 60 students, including Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian graduate student who is one of the main negotiators on behalf of CUAD, accused of breaking campus rules with their involvement in CUAD protests. Some students say the university is dragging out the investigations to discourage protests.
