Columbia University protesters resume demonstrations despite crackdown
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Pro-Palestinian student protesters at Columbia University have reignited their demonstrations, showcasing a resilient spirit in the face of escalating challenges.
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The pro-Palestinian encampment at Columbia University on April 28, 2024, in New York City © (AFP)
Pro-Palestinian student protesters resumed demonstrations at Columbia University, affirming that their determination has grown stronger despite widespread suspensions and arrests.
Concurrently, students and activists demonstrated outside the residence of Columbia University's president, Minouche Shafik, who incited against the students, prompted the police to enter the campus, suppressed the protests, removed the encampments, and arrested students.
🇵🇸🇺🇲Resumption of protests at the University of California:
— ιτѕ мєℓικα💫 (@Melikaa313) May 25, 2024
Once again, the US police have stormed the University of California campus & are suppressing pro-Palestinian students!#StudentProtests #AreHumanRightsEqualForAll pic.twitter.com/5H4JkPNY89
It is worth noting that students at the University of California resumed their sit-in protest on campus on Friday.
Columbia faculty members pass no-confidence vote against president
Faculty members of Columbia University's School of Arts and Sciences passed a motion of "no confidence" against President Minouche Shafik last Thursday over her response to the student protesters demanding an end to the bloodshed in Gaza.
Of the 709 faculty members who participated in the vote, 65% supported the no-confidence motion. The motion was put forward by faculty members on the board of Columbia’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors. According to The Washington Post, 29% voted against the motion, while 6% abstained.
The faculty's dissatisfaction is over Shafik’s decision to involve the New York Police Department (NYPD) in dismantling a pro-Palestine protest encampment on university grounds through violent means without prior consultation with the university senate.
"The President’s choices to ignore our statutes and our norms of academic freedom and shared governance, to have our students arrested, and to impose a lockdown of our campus with continuing police presence, have gravely undermined our confidence in her," the motion stated.
"A vote of no confidence in the President is the first step towards rebuilding our community and reestablishing the University’s core values of free speech, the right to peaceful assembly, and shared governance."
It should be noted that the Arts and Sciences faculty represents just 20% of Columbia's 4,600 full-time faculty members. As university spokesman Ben Chang highlighted, the no-confidence vote is symbolic and holds no legal authority, though it shows the growing dissatisfaction with the erosion of the students' rights to assembly.
Amy Hungerford, dean of Arts and Sciences, acknowledged the vote as a reflection of the frustration and disappointment felt by many faculty members.
The issue peaked on April 18 when NYPD officers, summoned by Shafik, arrested 108 pro-Palestine protesters during the Gaza Solidarity Encampment.
Universities across the United States have witnessed in the past few weeks a historic surge in student protests in support of Palestine and Gaza, calling for ending all agreements with "Israel" and divesting from the occupation entity. Students also demanded an end to the US support to "Israel" and involvement in the genocidal war.
On April 25, Columbia University went back on an overnight deadline set for pro-Palestine protesters to leave their encampment, amid more college campuses in the United States attempting to stop such protests from taking place.
US police made large-scale arrests in universities all over the country, and even used chemical irritants and tasers to stop the protesters who are expressing solidarity for Palestine.
