Columbia student protesters face expulsion after taking over campus building
Global News
The occupation of Hamilton Hall at Columbia University, renamed Hind’s Hall to honour a child victim in Gaza, unfolded as other universities stepped up efforts to end the protests.
Dozens of protesters took over a building at Columbia University in New York Tuesday, barricading entrances and unfurling a Palestinian flag from a window in the latest escalation of demonstrations against the Israel-Hamas conflict on college campuses nationwide. The school promised they would face expulsion from the university.
The occupation at Columbia — where protesters had shrugged off an earlier ultimatum to abandon a tent encampment Monday or be suspended — unfolded as other universities stepped up efforts to end the protests. Police swept through some campuses, leading to confrontations and arrests. In rarer instances, university officials and protest leaders struck agreements to restrict the disruption to campus life.
And as cease-fire negotiations appeared to gain steam, it wasn’t clear whether those talks would inspire campus protesters to ease their efforts.
Protesters on Columbia’s Manhattan campus locked arms early Tuesday and carried furniture and metal barricades to Hamilton Hall, among several buildings that were occupied during a 1968 civil rights and anti-Vietnam War protest. Posts on an Instagram page for protest organizers shortly after midnight urged people to protect the encampment and join them at Hamilton Hall. A “Free Palestine” banner hung from a window.
On social media Tuesday, CU Apartheid Divest called the building Hind’s Hall, honoring a young girl who was among the relatives killed in a vehicle in Gaza under Israeli fire.
Hamilton Hall opened in 1907 and is named for Alexander Hamilton — one of the U.S. founding fathers — who attended King’s College, Columbia’s original name.
“Students occupying the building face expulsion,” Columbia spokesperson Ben Chang said in a statement Tuesday. He said the university had given protesters a chance to leave peacefully and finish the semester, but that those who didn’t agree to the terms were being suspended — restricted from all academic and recreational spaces, allowed only to enter their residences, and, for seniors, ineligible to graduate.
“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,” he said.
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