Some students at Columbia University have faced severe consequences, including expulsion and degree revocation, for participating in antiwar protests, including the 2024 Gaza encampments.
The student activist group Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), which advocates for the school to cut all financial ties with Israel, stated that nearly 80 students have now either been expelled or suspended for up to three years due to their involvement in antiwar protests.
On Tuesday, Columbia University announced that its recent punishment of students is related to “disruption of Butler Library in May 2025 and the encampment during Alumni Weekend in spring 2024”.
“Disruptions to academic activities are in violation of University policies and rules, and such violations will necessarily generate consequences,” the university wrote.
The CUAD group asserted that the university’s sanctions on students “hugely exceed precedent for teach-ins or non-Palestine-related building occupations”.
“We will not be deterred. We are committed to the struggle for Palestinian liberation,” the group added.
The pro-Palestinian student encampments at Columbia University in 2024 facilitated a global movement against Israel’s relentless war on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The protest sites were eventually dispersed when Columbia University allowed hundreds of New York City police officers on campus, resulting in dozens of arrests.
Despite the university’s harsh crackdowns, student protesters occupied the Butler Library during final exams in May this year, calling for divestment from companies linked to the Israeli military and expressing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
Columbia University’s Judicial Board confirmed it issued expulsions, suspensions, and degree revocations after an incident referred to as a disruption during the “reading period”. Although the exact number of expelled students remains unknown, the board stated that these were “the final set of findings from that period”.
The Ivy League university is currently in negotiations with the Trump administration to reinstate approximately $400 million in federal funding. The Trump administration had withheld funds from the university, accusing it of failing to protect Jewish students from harassment.
Columbia’s acting president, Claire Shipman, faced criticism from students during a recent graduation ceremony for her role in cracking down on pro-Palestinian protests.
Harvard University, another Ivy League institution facing funding cuts, is contesting pressure to change its policies by taking the Trump administration to court.
The disciplinary actions announced by Columbia against students came amidst ongoing starvation in the Gaza Strip, with at least 15 people, including a six-week-old baby, dying from hunger and malnutrition within a 24-hour period, according to health officials.
Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University protest leader targeted for deportation by the Trump administration, met with lawmakers in Washington, DC, after being released from immigration custody in Louisiana, where he had been held on US President Trump’s pledge to deport pro-Palestinian activists.
