The US’s prestigious Columbia College has punished almost 80 college students who took half in protests in opposition to Israel’s conflict on Gaza with expulsions, one-to-three-year suspensions, and diploma revocations.
The College’s Judicial Board acknowledged on Tuesday that it had accomplished disciplinary hearings for the Could 7, 2025, Butler Library demonstration on its campus and the Could 31, 2024, “Revolt for Rafah” encampment throughout the college’s annual alumni weekend.
In 2024, pro-Palestinian pupil encampments at Columbia College grew to become a flashpoint for a world wave of campus protests in opposition to Israel’s conflict in Gaza. The motion drew nationwide consideration earlier than college directors known as NYPD officers to dismantle the camps, leading to dozens of arrests.
“Suspension from Columbia for protesting genocide is the very best honour,” mentioned Columbia College Apartheid Divest (CUAD), an umbrella coalition of pupil teams, in a post on X.
“We reject that Columbia has any popularity value upholding and we categorically state that we don’t want to uphold it,” the coed physique mentioned.
So, why has Columbia expelled these college students? And why has the Trump administration clamped down on universities?
What has occurred?
Columbia College has disciplined almost 80 college students for his or her participation in pro-Palestinian protests – to “separate them from the College”.
The disciplinary motion follows a sequence of demonstrations on campus, together with a student-led occupation of Butler Library throughout ultimate exams on Could 7 earlier this yr.
The NYPD arrested 78 people that day. The protests are a part of a name for the college to divest from firms linked to the Israeli navy, lower all monetary ties with Israel, and specific solidarity with Palestinians amid the persevering with conflict in Gaza.
Based on pupil organisers, the suspended college students took half in a “peaceable teach-in” which included readings and discussions about Palestinian author and activist Basil al-Araj, killed by Israeli forces in 2017.
The mass disciplinary motion, described as the largest of its type in Columbia’s historical past, has sparked backlash from civil liberties teams and fellow college students.
Organisers argue the crackdown is a part of a broader effort to suppress pro-Palestinian activism on US campuses and have linked it to a pending settlement between Columbia and Trump administration officers.
The College’s pupil newspaper, Columbia Spectator, reported that almost all of scholars acquired a two-year suspension. The scholars have reportedly been requested to apologise to the college earlier than they are often allowed to return to campus.
Earlier this yr, the Trump administration introduced it might withhold roughly $400m in funding for Columbia College, citing the establishment’s alleged failure to adequately deal with anti-Semitism amid pro-Palestinian protests on campus.
That transfer prompted Columbia to concede to a listing of calls for laid down by the federal government in return for negotiations to reinstate its funding. Amongst different concessions, the college agreed to ban face masks and to empower 36 campus law enforcement officials with particular powers to arrest college students.
What has Columbia mentioned?
In a press release revealed on Tuesday, the College acknowledged that the disruption at Butler Library throughout studying interval had affected lots of of scholars and subsequently led to the interim suspension of Columbia individuals.
The College mentioned sanctions would come with probation, suspensions starting from one yr to 3 years, diploma revocations, and expulsions.
It didn’t state what number of confronted every of those sanctions, nor did it reveal any of the scholars’ identities, citing pupil privateness.
“Our establishment should give attention to delivering on its educational mission for our group. And to create a thriving educational group, there have to be respect for one another and the establishment’s basic work, insurance policies, and guidelines,” the assertion famous. “Disruptions to educational actions are in violation of College insurance policies and Guidelines, and such violations will essentially generate penalties.”
How have college students responded?
Information of the suspensions and expulsions got here on the identical day that Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia College protest chief focused for deportation by President Donald Trump, met with lawmakers in Washington, DC, simply over a month after the 30-year-old, a authorized everlasting resident of the USA, was released from immigration custody in Louisiana.
Khalil continues to face deportation underneath the Trump administration, which has relied on an obscure provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 in its makes an attempt to expel worldwide college students concerned in pro-Palestinian advocacy.
In response to the suspensions and expulsion introduced by Columbia on Tuesday, the coed activist group Columbia College Apartheid Divest (CUAD), an umbrella coalition of pupil teams, famous that whereas “the US and Israel starve 2.1 million Gazans to demise, Columbia has labored diligently with [Trump’s administration] to droop dozens of scholars for pro-Palestine activism”.
The group famous the suspensions have been the very best ever for a single political protest in Columbia’s historical past and “vastly exceed sentencing precedent for teach-ins or non-Palestine-related constructing occupations”.
“College students stay dedicated to ending US- and Columbia-backed Israeli genocide whatever the college’s sanctions,” the coed physique mentioned in its assertion.
Quoting a sworn statement from college students’ July disciplinary hearings, the group reiterated: “Each college in Gaza has been destroyed. Tons of of teachers have been killed. Books and archives have been incinerated. Complete households have been erased from the civil registry. This isn’t a conflict. It’s a marketing campaign of erasure.”
“We is not going to be deterred. We’re dedicated to the battle for Palestinian liberation,” the assertion quoted college students in conclusion.
Why has Trump clamped down on universities?
The antiwar protests in opposition to Israel’s conflict on Gaza, which unfold throughout US college campuses from Columbia and UCLA to Harvard, final yr have drawn comparisons with the anti-Vietnam Warfare period, when pupil activism immediately challenged US overseas coverage.
Trump has capitalised on this by portray college students as a part of a left-wing, anti-Semitic revolt and clamping down on universities, significantly “elite” establishments.
The administration argues that universities have failed to guard Jewish college students from harassment and violence throughout demonstrations, citing incidents of encampments and chants deemed anti-Semitic.
Since early 2025, the administration has focused greater than 50 universities, together with Columbia, with investigations by the Division of Training’s Workplace for Civil Rights.
This has been coupled with government orders and actions, resembling freezing billions in federal research grants and threatening to revoke tax-exempt standing or accreditation, as seen in calls for positioned on Harvard and Columbia.
Harvard’s rejection of calls for that its programmes be audited for “ideological seize” led to billions of {dollars} in federal funding being frozen. The administration additionally threatened to bar worldwide college students from Harvard, citing “nationwide safety” and excessive campus crime charges, which underscores the White Home’s chokehold over the colleges.
Harvard has sued the administration and secured a federal choose’s temporary block on the order to bar worldwide college students.
The insurance policies underneath the Trump administration additionally mirror its normal opposition to perceived liberal biases in increased schooling, because it goals to dismantle “woke” tradition and promote conservative values. It has additionally focused variety, fairness, and inclusion (DEI) programmes operated by universities and other workplaces, accusing them of selling division and “reverse discrimination”.