College campus protests: Latest updates from Columbia University and Yale

Columbia University President Minouche Shafik updated students on Monday regarding pro-Palestinian protests on the New York City campus.

“These tensions have been exploited and amplified by individuals who are not affiliated with Columbia who have come to campus to pursue their own agendas,” Ms Shafik said. “We need a reset.”

Ms Shafik announced classes would be virtual on Monday in the same statement.

Last week, the school’s head called in the New York Police Department to arrest some 100 students involved in pro-Palestine protests. Police Chief John Chell later noted that the students who were arrested “were peaceful…and were saying what they wanted to say in a peaceful manner,” per the Columbia Spectator.

Students at several universities in the Boston, Massachusetts area are staging pro-Palestinian encampments, similar to those at Columbia and Yale this week.

Encampments have been reported at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Tufts University and Emerson University, NBC Boston reports.

These protests are cropping up as Columbia University moves classes online on Monday, the beginning of Passover. The New York Police Department arrested some 100 students last week, later noting they were protesting peacefully.

Meanwhile, riot police stormed Yale University and arrested at least 45 students as they staged their own pro-Palestine protest on Monday.

Student demonstrators have demanded that the university divest from “companies complicit in genocide” as the country engages in war for the seventh month since the October 7 attacks. The protests have continued into a fifth day on Sunday, but accounts of antisemitism and violent rhetoric have cropped up.

The White House condemned any hate-filled, targeted speech.

“While every American has the right to peaceful protect, calls for violence and physical intimidation targeting Jewish students and the Jewish community are blatantly Antisemitic, unconscionable, and dangerous – they have absolutely no place on any college campus, or anywhere in the United States of America,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement.

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Columbia University has hired an additional 111 security personnel and ordered additional security at the campus’ Jewish life centre amid pro-Palestinian protests and encampments.

Last week, Columbia University’s president called in the New York Police Department (NYPD) regarding pro-Palestinian protests. Officers arrested some 100 students. Police Chief John Chell later noted that the students who were arrested “were peaceful,” per the Columbia Spectator.

Yale University President Peter Salovey sent students an email on Sunday warning the school “will pursue disciplinary actions according to its policies” amid ongoing demonstrations.

“Many of the students participating in the protests, including those conducting counterprotests, have done so peacefully. However, I am aware of reports of egregious behavior, such as intimidation and harassment, pushing those in crowds, removal of the plaza flag, and other harmful acts,” he wrote.

“Yale does not tolerate actions, including remarks, that threaten, harass, or intimidate members of the university’s Jewish, Muslim, and other communities,” he continued.

The Columbia University chapter of the American Association of University Professors criticised school president Minouche Shafik for calling the New York Police Department (NYPD) on student protesters last week.

“We condemn in the strongest possible terms the Administration’s suspension of students engaged in peaceful protest and their arrest by the New York City Police Department,” the group said in a statement on Friday.

The NYPD arrested some 100 students last week after Ms Shafik requested their presence on campus. However, Police Chief John Chell later noted that the students who were arrested “were peaceful…and were saying what they wanted to say in a peaceful manner,” per the Columbia Spectator.

Sahar Tartak, a sophomore at Yale University, says a pro-Palestinian protester stabbed her in the eye with a flag on Saturday.

”I was stabbed in the eye last night on Yale University’s campus because I am a Jew,” Ms Tartak wrote in an essay for The Free Press recounting the incident.

She said a protester stabbed her in the left eye with a Palestinian flag as she attempted to document the protest as a student journalist. Ms Tartak said she later went to the hospital.

Students from Columbia and Barnard opposed to the ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza gathered on Wednesday to form an “encampment” on Columbia’s south lawn.

On Thursday morning — approximately 24 hours after the encampment was formed — Ms Hirsi and approximately one hundred others were arrested when Columbia President Minouche Shafik authorised the NYPD to forcibly shut down the demonstration.