Columbia University punishes pro-Palestinian protesters who occupied building

The announcement came a week after President Donald Trump's administration announced that it had canceled $400 million in federal grants and contracts.

By REUTERS MARCH 14, 2025 01:38

Demonstrators hold placards as they protest on the day of a hearing on the detention of Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, in New York City, U.S., March 12, 2025. (photo credit: REUTERS/JEENAH MOON)

Columbia University on Thursday said it had doled out a range of punishments to students who occupied a campus building last spring during pro-Palestinian protests.

The announcement came a week after President Donald Trump's administration announced that it had canceled $400 million in federal grants and contracts in response to what it said was the Ivy League school's poor response to antisemitism on campus.

Columbia University's interim president, Katrina Armstrong, has called the administration's concerns legitimate and said her institution was working with the government to address them. Campus protests and pro-Israel counter-protests have drawn allegations of antisemitism, Islamophobia and racism.

The university said in a statement on Thursday that its "judicial board determined findings and issued sanctions to students ranging from multi-year suspensions, temporary degree revocations, and expulsions related to the occupation of Hamilton Hall last spring."

The university did not release the names of students who were disciplined, nor did it say how many students faced punishments.

Stickers posted by pro-Palestinian groups on the Columbia campus. (credit: Unnamed Columbia student. )

Campus protests

Columbia was the epicenter of anti-Israel protests that hit several US college campuses.

The demonstrations began after the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023 and subsequent US-supported Israeli assault on Gaza. Protesters demanded that university endowments divest from Israeli interests and that the US end military assistance to Israel, among other demands.

The Trump administration has vowed a severe crackdown on what it labels as pro-Hamas protesters.

Over the weekend federal immigration agents detained Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil, a leader of last year's campus protests whom the administration seeks to deport. The administration has said that his detention was the first of many it hopes to carry out. Khalil's deportation has been temporarily blocked by a federal judge.