April 28th 2024.
Jocelyn Gecker's article tells the story of Maryam Alwan, a college junior at Columbia University who, along with other protesters, was arrested by New York City police in riot gear during a demonstration against the Israel-Hamas war. After being loaded onto buses and held in custody for hours, Alwan received an email from the university informing her that she and her fellow students were being suspended. This tactic, known as the "Gaza Solidarity Encampment," has been used by many colleges across the country to quell growing protests on campus.
The students' situation has become a focal point of the protests, with students and faculty demanding their amnesty. The main issue at hand is whether the universities and law enforcement will drop the charges and refrain from imposing further consequences, or if the suspensions and criminal records will follow the students into their adult lives.
The details of the suspensions differ from campus to campus. At Columbia and its sister school, Barnard College, Alwan and dozens of other students were arrested on April 18 and subsequently banned from campus, unable to attend classes in person or virtually, and even prohibited from entering dining halls. This has left many questions about their academic future unanswered. Will they be allowed to take their final exams? What about their financial aid? And what about graduation? Although Columbia has stated that these outcomes will be determined at disciplinary hearings, Alwan claims that she has not been given a date for her hearing.
Alwan, a comparative literature and society major, described the situation as "very dystopian." What began as a protest at Columbia has now become a nationwide conflict between students and administrators over anti-war demonstrations and the limits of free speech. In the past 10 days, hundreds of students from various colleges, including Yale, the University of Southern California, Vanderbilt, and the University of Minnesota, have been arrested, suspended, put on probation, and even expelled.
At Barnard, a women's liberal arts college affiliated with Columbia, over 50 students were suspended and evicted from campus housing on April 18, according to interviews with students and reports from the Columbia Spectator campus newspaper, which obtained internal campus documents. However, on Friday, Barnard announced that they had come to agreements with "nearly all" of the students, restoring their access to campus. The college did not specify the exact number, but stated that all students who had their suspensions lifted had agreed to follow college rules and, in some cases, were placed on probation.
However, on the night of the arrests, Barnard student Maryam Iqbal received an email from a dean stating that she could briefly return to her dorm room accompanied by campus security before being kicked out. The email read, "You will have 15 minutes to gather what you might need." This incident prompted over 100 Barnard and Columbia faculty members to hold a "Rally to Support Our Students" last week, condemning the student arrests and demanding that the suspensions be lifted.
Meanwhile, Columbia is still attempting to remove the tent encampment on their main lawn, where the graduation ceremony is set to take place on May 15. The students have demanded that the university cut ties with companies linked to Israel and ensure amnesty for all students and faculty who have been arrested or disciplined in connection with the protests. According to Ben Chang, a spokesperson for Columbia, discussions with the student protesters are ongoing. "We have our demands, and they have theirs," he said.
For international students facing suspension, there is an added fear of losing their visas, according to Radhika Sainath, an attorney with Palestine Legal, who helped a group of Columbia students file a federal civil rights complaint against the school. The complaint, filed on Thursday, accuses Columbia of not doing enough to address discrimination against Palestinian students. Sainath described the level of punishment as "draconian" and "over-the-top callousness."
More than 40 students were arrested during a demonstration at Yale last week, including senior Craig Birckhead-Morton. He is set to graduate on May 20, but he claims that the university has not informed him if his case will be brought before a disciplinary panel. He is worried about whether he will receive his diploma and if his acceptance to Columbia for graduate school could be in jeopardy. "The school has done its best to ignore us and not tell us what happens next," said Birckhead-Morton, a history major.
Across the country, college administrators have struggled to find a balance between free speech and inclusivity. Some protests have included hate speech, anti-Semitic threats, or support for Hamas. The added pressure of commencement ceremonies has led to a growing urgency to clear the demonstrations. University officials maintain that arrests and suspensions are a last resort and that they give ample warnings before taking action to clear protest areas.
Vanderbilt University in Tennessee has issued what is believed to be the only student expulsions related to protesting the Israel-Hamas conflict, according to the Institute for Middle Eastern Understanding. More than two dozen students occupied the university chancellor's office for several hours on March 26, prompting the university to call the police and arrest several protesters. Vanderbilt then issued three expulsions, one suspension, and put 22 students on probation.
In an open letter to Chancellor Daniel Diermeier, over 150 Vanderbilt professors criticized the university's response as "excessive and punitive." Jack Petocz, a freshman who was one of the students expelled, is being allowed to attend classes while he appeals the decision. He has been evicted from his dorm and now lives off-campus. Petocz stated that his activism in high school is what helped him get into Vanderbilt and secure a merit scholarship reserved for activists and organizers. His college essay was about organizing walkouts in rural Florida to protest Governor Ron DeSantis' anti-LGBTQ policies. "Vanderbilt seemed to love that," Petocz said. "Unfortunately, the buck stops when you start advocating for Palestinian liberation."
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