As students return to Columbia, the epicenter of a protest movement on campus prepares for disruption

NEW YORK – As Columbia University resumes classes Tuesday, students and faculty are bracing for a resumption of the pro-Palestinian protests that rocked the Manhattan campus at the end of the spring semester and sparked a wave of demonstrations across the country.

In recent weeks, the university's new administration has launched hearings to ease tensions, released a report on anti-Semitism on campus and circulated new protest guidelines designed to limit disruption. But student organizers are undeterred, vowing to ramp up their actions – including possible tent camps – until the university agrees to cut ties with companies with ties to Israel.

“As long as Columbia continues to invest and profit from Israeli apartheid, students will continue to resist,” said Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student who represented campus protesters in negotiations with the university. “It's not just protests and encampments, the sky's the limit.”

The start of the new academic year comes less than a month after the resignation of Columbia President Minouche Shafik, who twice sent police to campus last spring to clear protest camps. When a small group of students occupied a university building, hundreds of police officers descended on campus, made arrests and locked down the university.

On Tuesday morning, dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrated outside one of the school's entrances, some beating drums as a long line of students and staff marched through a security checkpoint. At other entrances, the lines were shorter, and some were blocked off with bike locks.

Since Shafik's resignation, interim president Katrina Armstrong has met with students from both sides and promised to balance students' rights to free speech with a safe learning environment. While that message has sparked cautious optimism among some faculty, others see the prospect of major disruption as all but inevitable.

“We're hoping for the best, but we're all betting on how long it's going to be before we go back into total lockdown,” said Rebecca Korbin, a history professor who served on Columbia University's anti-Semitism working group. “There haven't been any fundamental changes, so I don't know why the experience in the fall should look much different than it did in the spring.”

In a report released Friday, the task force of Columbia University faculty members accused the university of allowing “pervasive” anti-Semitism on campus following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. The report recommended that the university revise its disciplinary process and provide additional awareness training for students and staff.

There have already been anti-war demonstrations on college campuses this semester, including one at the University of Michigan that resulted in several arrests. While the few recent protests near Columbia have been small, the scars of last spring's unrest are clearly visible.

The university's high iron gates, long open to the public, are now guarded. Students must show identification to enter the campus. Inside, private security guards stand at the edge of the lawns that students had commandeered for their camp. A new sign on a nearby fence indicates that “camping” is prohibited.

Layla Hussein, a third-year student at Columbia University who helped lead orientation programs, called the extra security measures an unwelcome and hostile distraction.

“We try to create a welcoming atmosphere. It doesn't help if you look outside and just see a lot of security guards and barricades,” Hussein said.

Others accused the university of being too lenient with the protesting students, arguing that the lack of clear policies would lead to more unrest this semester. Although some of these disciplinary cases are ongoing, prosecutors have dropped charges against many of the students arrested last semester and the university has allowed them to return to campus.

“They have violated every rule there is, and they openly state that they will continue to do so,” said Elisha Baker, a third-year student at Columbia University who leads an Israel engagement group, adding, “We need to seriously address the disciplinary process to ensure that students have a safe learning environment.”

After Jewish students sued Columbia, accusing the university of creating a dangerous atmosphere on campus, the university agreed in June to provide a “Safe Passage Liability Consort” for those associated with protest activities. In July, Columbia fired three administrators who exchanged private text messages during a discussion on Jewish life disparaging certain speakers in a way that Shafik said touched on “old anti-Semitic tropes.” One of the administrators had suggested in a text message that a campus rabbi was turning concerns about anti-Semitism into a fundraising opportunity.

A Columbia University spokesman said the university has since tightened its policies regarding protests and developed new training on anti-Semitism and Islamophobia for freshmen.

The revised protest rules require organizers to notify the university of all planned protests, except for demonstrations that “significantly interfere with the primary purposes of a particular university property.”

“The university may restrict speech that poses an actual threat of harassment, that unreasonably invades an individual’s privacy, or that defames a specific individual,” the guidelines state.

Like many other universities, Columbia is in the midst of a heated debate over the definition of anti-Semitism and whether anti-Zionist statements – common in student protests – should be considered a form of discrimination.

At New York University, which also saw large-scale protests and a tent camp last spring, an updated code of conduct now warns students that critical comments about Zionism could violate anti-discrimination policies. The measure was praised by major Jewish groups but sharply criticized by student groups and some faculty.

The Columbia Working Group report defines anti-Semitism as “prejudice, discrimination, hatred or violence against Jews, including Jewish Israelis,” “double standards toward Israel,” and exclusion or discrimination based on “actual or perceived ties to Israel.”

Eduardo Vergara, a graduate student at Columbia who teaches Spanish literature, said many faculty members were unsure at the beginning of the semester about what they could and could not say in class. He expected to spend much of the semester discussing the war in Gaza and the response on campus.

“It feels like everything is quiet now,” he added. “I don't think it will stay that way for long.”

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Associated Press writer Cedar Attanasio contributed to this report.