Columbia University officials have begun to suspend students who are refusing to comply with its order to disperse anti-Israel encampment protests on campus.
The pro-Palestinian protesters have demanded the university divest from Israel, something officials have rejected after negotiations with the student protesters. The protests have garnered national headlines over reports of hostile behavior toward Jewish students from some assembled protesters. Officials at the university gave students a 2 p.m. Monday deadline to disperse, and they have begun suspending those who do not comply.
“Students who agreed to leave and sign a form committing to abide by University policies will be allowed to complete the semester. Students who do not will be placed on suspension, ineligible to complete the semester or graduate, and will be restricted from all academic, residential, and recreational spaces,” Ben Chang, vice president of communications at Columbia University, said in an update Monday evening.
“We have begun suspending students as part of this next phase of our efforts to ensure safety on our campus. Once disciplinary action is initiated, adjudication is handled by several different units within the University based on the nature of the offense,” he added.
The university also warned about the impacts the encampment could have on the commencement ceremony scheduled for graduating students next month.
“In the notice to the encampment, we made another direct request to the student protestors: We urge you to remove the encampment so that we do not deprive your fellow students—more than 15,000 graduating this spring—their families, and friends of this momentous occasion,” Chang said in the Monday evening update.
Security and safety concerns at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles caused the university to cancel its main-stage commencement ceremony.
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Protests against Israel at various universities in recent weeks, including Columbia and Yale, have called on the institutions to divest from Israel amid its war against Hamas terrorists in Gaza.
The war between Israel and Hamas began last October after the terrorist group launched an attack against the Jewish state.
