<p>-
- Columbia University disciplines at least 70 students who took part in campus protests</p>
<p>Matt Lavietes July 23, 2025 at 2:11 AM</p>
<p>Demonstrators in support of Palestinians in Gaza at Columbia University in New York City in 2024. (Alex Kent / Getty Images file)</p>
<p>Columbia University has disciplined over 70 students for participating in two student-led protests, a source familiar with the matter said.</p>
<p>In a Tuesday statement, the university confirmed that it was punishing students who participated in the protest at the school's Butler Library, where at least 80 people were detained, as well as a similar demonstration during its annual alumni weekend last year.</p>
<p>Columbia said it would not release the "individual disciplinary results of any student," but noted that "sanctions from Butler Library include probation, suspensions (ranging from one year to three years), degree revocations, and expulsions."</p>
<p>The source familiar with the matter told NBC News in a phone call that of the suspended students, two-thirds were suspended for two years.</p>
<p>Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), a student group advocating for the university to divest its ties to Israel, stated in a press release that nearly 80 students were informed on Monday afternoon that they would be suspended for one to three years or expelled for participating in the May protest.</p>
<p>The student group claimed that the disciplinary letters required suspended students to submit apologies to the university to return to campus — or face expulsion.</p>
<p>In its Tuesday statement, Columbia said, "Our institution must focus on delivering on its academic mission for our community."</p>
<p>"Disruptions to academic activities are in violation of University policies and Rules, and such violations will necessarily generate consequences," the school statement said.</p>
<p>The Ivy League school's disciplinary crackdown comes several months after the Trump administration cut hundreds of millions of dollars in federal research grants to the university.</p>
<p>Following those cuts, Columbia implemented a long list of new policies at the request of the Trump administration to begin negotiations on restoring federal funding.</p>
<p>The university agreed to adjust its disciplinary process, ban masks at protests in most cases, and hire dozens of new security officers, among other measures, according to a document the university stated it shared with the federal government and posted on its website.</p>
<p>The new rules came after last year's student protests and encampments at the university, galvanized by the ongoing war in Gaza, drawing both outrage and applause around the world.</p>
<p>The unprecedented nature of the student-led protests — which marked the first time Columbia allowed police to suppress demonstrations at the university since its 1968 protests against the Vietnam War — made the university the de facto epicenter of similar demonstrations at universities nationwide.</p>
<p>But some of Columbia's students previously told NBC News that protesting on the campus in recent months had become "dangerous" following the university's agreement with the Trump administration and the detainment of student activist Mahmoud Khalil by immigration authorities.</p>
<p>Khalil, a graduate student who helped lead negotiations between student protesters and the university, was held at an immigration detention center in Louisiana for more than 104 days before being released last month.</p>
<p>However, the fears did not stop dozens from protesting the war and the university's ties to Israel in May.</p>
<p>Dozens of demonstrators occupied a room in the university's Butler Library during the May protest, as students were studying for their final exams. Protesters wore keffiyehs, chanted slogans, and clashed with police and campus security officers, according to video of the demonstration posted on social media.</p>
<p>Police officers prevented the demonstrators from leaving the library without presenting identification for some time before they began arresting students, the videos show.</p>
<p>The protest resulted in the detainment of at least 80 people, according to the New York Police Department. Two campus security officers were injured during the protest, the university said at the time, due to a crowd surge.</p>
<p>Columbia took similar disciplinary action in March for pro-Palestinian protests that took place on campus last year. It issued "multi-year suspensions, temporary degree revocations and expulsion" for students who overtook a university building, Hamilton Hall, at the height of last year's protests.</p>
<a href="https://ift.tt/C6DtK02" class="dirlink-1">Original Article on Source</a>
Source: "AOL General News"
Source: AsherMag
Full Article on Source: Astro Blog
#LALifestyle #USCelebrities