Columbia University is desperate to get back in the good graces of the Trump administration, which recently cut $400 million in grants from its budget. The school announced disciplinary actions against an unknown number of students that included expulsions, suspensions, and the “temporary loss of degrees.”
Columbia University Apartheid Divest wrote in a Thursday Instagram post that 22 Columbia students had been suspended, expelled, or had their degrees revoked. The post claimed that nine Barnard and Columbia students have been expelled in total for pro-Palestinian protests.
“The University’s extreme reaction is a sign that the administration has lost control of the narrative about student protest and can no longer credibly defend their genocidal record,” the post reads. “As history shows us, it’s only a matter of time before the University divests.”
What history? Only a couple of smaller colleges have actually divested Israeli stock or other assets despite tens of thousands of kids stomping their little feet and demanding divestment.
The Columbia penalties were handed down by the University Judicial Board (UJB) and can be taken to an appeal board which has the power to “overturn, affirm, or revise the decision, and it may overturn, affirm or lessen the sanction.”
“Appeals must be filed to the appeals board within five business days after the notice of decisions or sanctions,” reports the Columbia Spectator, the school’s student newspaper.
“The outcomes issued by the UJB are based on its evaluation of the severity of behaviors at these events and prior disciplinary actions,” the university said in a statement sent to the school community. “These outcomes are the result of following the thorough and rigorous processes laid out in the Rules of University Conduct in our statutes, which include investigations, hearings and deliberations.”
In June 2024, the Manhattan district attorney’s office moved to dismiss the charges against most of the protesters arrested at Columbia University but said that prosecutors were moving forward with cases against a handful of protesters who allegedly assaulted police officers at Columbia as well as City College.
Prosecutors said at the time that they were hamstrung by “extremely limited video or surveillance footage of what occurred inside Hamilton Hall” since most cameras were covered by the protesters.
Charges against 31 people were dropped, though they still were subject to discipline by Columbia University.
Rules Administrator Gregory Wawro announced the disciplinary actions on Tuesday.
“I am confident that the community will accept the legitimacy of the outcomes, whatever they may be, since we followed our longstanding practices and policies under the Rules,” Wawro wrote in the email.
Related: Nearly 100 Protesters Storm Trump Tower Demanding Release of Mahmoud Khalil
That’s wishful thinking. The brainless supporters who are doing the bidding of far more sophisticated, far more serious Palestinian organizers have no idea that they’re tools of terrorists. The leaders of the Palestinian “resistance” are not wide-eyed kids fighting for a cause. The leaders are gimlet-eyed radicals who don’t care who gets hurt or who dies as long as their agenda is served.
UJB based its decisions on a series of “investigations, hearings and deliberations and “its evaluation of the severity of behaviors at these events and prior disciplinary actions,” according to the Thursday email announcing the sanctions levied against students involved in the April 2024 occupation of Hamilton Hall.
Jeanine D’Armiento, the University Senate executive committee chair, announced in July 2024 that the majority of disciplinary cases for the occupation of Hamilton Hall had been transferred from the Center for Student Success and Intervention to UJB.
Watch now as most of the more serious penalties disappear down the rabbit hole.
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