Chaos has engulfed the Ivy League.
Protesters at Columbia University have spent days protesting against Israel’s war with Hamas, forcing authorities to arrest more than 100 of the agitators, and the school’s president has shifted all classes to virtual learning on Monday amid safety concerns.
Columbia University President Dr. Nemat “Minouche” Shafik mostly closed the campus and urged commuting students not to travel to the campus in a statement posted just after 1 a.m. on Monday. In the statement, the president said she was “deeply saddened” by certain actions of the agitators, who have formed an “encampment” on the campus and have riled students and faculty with anti-Jewish slogans and chants.
The statement is the latest action from the school’s administration amid the fiery protests in and around the New York City campus that began Wednesday as dozens of anti-Israel activists created an encampment on the main lawn of campus.
Campus lawn takeover
On Wednesday, dozens of protesters called on the university to divest itself from companies that have ties to Israel. These protesters then erected camping tents and remained on the school grounds, despite being instructed to leave. The protesters then shouted antisemitic chants and slogans on Columbia’s campus. That same day, the school’s president, alongside co-chairs of the university’s board of trustees, was testifying before Congress on antisemitism on campus.
The school acknowledged the tents violated the school’s policies, despite initially allowing them to remain.
“The presence of tents on South Lawn is a safety concern and a violation of university policies,” a university spokesperson told the Spectator, a student newspaper. “We are informing the students they are in violation of university policies and for their own safety and for the operation of the university they need to leave.”
