Columbia University Expels Students Who Occupied Hamilton Hall During Pro-Palestinian Protests

Columbia University has expelled some students and revoked diplomas of others involved in a pro-Palestinian protest on campus last year.

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Columbia University said that it has expelled some students who took over the campus building during the pro-Palestinian protest last year. According to news agency AP, quoting officials, the university has temporarily revoked the diplomas of others who have since graduated.

In a campus-wide email, the university said that a judicial board brought a range of sanctions against students who occupied Hamilton Hall last spring to protest the war in Gaza.

The university did not provide a breakdown of how many students were expelled, suspended, or had their degrees revoked. However, it said that the outcomes were based on an “evaluation of the severity of behaviours.”

The monthlong investigative process came to an end as the university is reeling from the arrest of a well-known Palestinian campus activist, Mahmoud Khalil, by federal immigration authorities last Saturday.  US President Trump said that the arrest would be the “first of many” such detentions.

According to the report, Trump has also stripped the university of more than $400 million in federal funds over what it calls a failure to combat campus antisemitism. Congressional Republicans have pointed specifically to a failure to discipline students involved in the Hamilton Hall seizure as proof of inaction by the university.

In April last year, a smaller group of students and their allies barricaded themselves inside Hamilton Hall with furniture and padlocks in a major escalation of campus protests. Hundreds of New York police stormed onto campus the following night at the request of the university leaders and arrested dozens of people involved in both the occupation and the encampment. 

According to AP, the Manhattan district attorney at a court hearing in June said that it would not pursue criminal charges for 31 of the 46 people initially arrested on trespassing charges inside the administration building. However, students still faced disciplinary hearings and possible expulsion from the university.