Columbia University punishes student protesters to restore federal funding
NEW YORK, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Columbia University disciplined dozens of students Tuesday for participating in pro-Palestinian protests in the campus library before May finals and an encampment during the 2024 alumni weekend, as it seeks to restore federal funding.
More than 70 students were sanctioned, with about 80 percent facing suspensions, expulsions or revoked degrees, according to a statement from the student activist group Columbia University Apartheid Divest, which has called for the school to cut all financial ties with Israel.
The group said the university's sanctions on students "hugely exceed precedent for teach-ins or non-Palestine-related building occupations." It would not be deterred and continue its work for Palestinian liberation, the group added.
Columbia University's Judicial Board confirmed the punishments for the students.
"While the University does not release individual disciplinary results of any student, the sanctions from Butler Library include probation, suspensions (ranging from one year to three years), degree revocations, and expulsions," the university said in a statement Tuesday.
"Disruptions to academic activities are in violation of University policies and Rules, and such violations will necessarily generate consequences," said the statement.
The disciplinary action is part of Columbia's efforts to regain the 400 million U.S. dollars in federal funding withheld by the Donald Trump administration since March over its handling of Gaza war protests and alleged campus antisemitism. Columbia was at the heart of pro-Palestine protests in 2024, and has now become a focal point in the Trump administration's push for campuses to curb antisemitism.
Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has cut funding to several top U.S. universities he sees as too tolerant of antisemitism.
Top schools, such as Columbia and Harvard, face pressure to act or risk losing federal funding and having to make staff cuts. ■
