Police and private security throng every entrance but one. Steel barriers line the streets. Students pack up belongings in their cars and leave for home - classes are cancelled, and exam plans are up in the air.
Everywhere there is gloom, and uncertainty about what happens next at Columbia University.
Students told the BBC that the university’s decision to call in police to clear a Gaza protest late on Tuesday, leading to a raid on the occupied Hamilton Hall and hundreds of arrests, has left the college community shattered.
The university president, Nemat Shafik, said that it was with great regret that she ordered the police raid against students and others she said had infiltrated the protest. It would “take time to heal”, she added in a message in the operation’s aftermath.
For students of this prestigious school in Manhattan, New York, how long is unclear.
Aren’t there laws that prevent Universities from doing so?
Are there? I’ve not heard of such a thing.
Yes, anti-BDS laws. These were passed years ago (not reactionary to now). There are state and federal rules but in general, a university can’t boycott or divest from Israeli (or many other nations) in political protest or it loses funding.
I think this is why we see most universities have their hands tied.
A private university? I would like to see that law.
I still believe the university benefits from government funding since NSF, NIST, DoD etc are all agencies funding university research. I don’t think it’s possible to un-fund yourself completely from the government given that it spurs research everywhere.
But you can make an effort. Which they are not doing.
I can understand that people hold their college as some part of their soul and want their universities actions to reflect their political beliefs. But, I don’t think universities (as an entity) should be involved politically or have political opinions.
What is it but having a political belief right now? It’s the same belief but on the opposite side. So if one is political, then by definition so is the other
No shit. These guys aren’t great at realizing their own inherent bias
You seem to be confusing taking no action with taking positive action when compared to a negative action, conflating both to be the same thing under an “if you aren’t explicitly with me then you’re against me” view point. If the University we’re going out of its way to dump more money into new Israeli investments, then that would be the same belief but opposite. Not changing anything is by definition the only neutral action, and any change in any direction would be political. Not saying anything about what is ultimately “right”, just that there “is” an apolitical option and that is to do whatever would be done if this whole thing wasn’t happening.
Anti-BDS laws exist (you can look them up on Wikipedia). Are they constitutional? Certainly not. Is our legal system going to fight them? Doubt it.
Columbia’s dean was on NPR and said that political investments and divestments are illegal.
What the protestors aren’t saying is that by divestment they are asking the school to divest from the S&P 500. If Columbia agrees, they need a non politically motivated reason to do so.
S&P 500? That’s an interesting ask considering teachers pension/tenure funds and administrative 401ks are all probably in there.
Yeah, in my mind it makes more sense to take the protest to wall street.
In the case of Columbia students, they are already in New York. Catching a bus shouldn’t be too hard .