Columbia University expels, suspends and revokes degrees of 22 students

Columbia University made a series of concessions to the Trump administration on Thursday, following a letter from the administration outlining nine demands and threatening to revoke its federal funding if the university did not comply.

On Thursday, Columbia University announced that it had disciplined 22 students who participated in last year's Hamilton Hall protests with expulsion, suspension, and revocation of degrees. This move is aimed at satisfying one of the nine demands outlined in the Trump administration's letter.

The University Judicial Board (UJB) has been overseeing disciplinary proceedings for pro-Palestinian protesters since the fall and issued the aforementioned penalties. The board stated that it issued decisions on April 30 involving "multi-year suspensions, temporary degree revocations, and expulsions related to the occupation of Hamilton Hall."

Previously, the UJB, an independent body composed of faculty and students, only imposed suspensions on students. One of the demands made by the Trump administration was to eliminate the UJB and centralize disciplinary authority in the President's Office, granting it sole jurisdiction to punish students.

Columbia University Apartheid Divest claimed in a statement that Board of Trustees Co-Chair David Greenwald (who worked at Goldman Sachs for 20 years) "was exposed for personally interfering in the disciplinary cases of these students."

According to student organizers, an estimated six students have been expelled from Columbia University. One of the expelled students is Grant Miner, president of the Student Workers of Columbia (SWC) union.

According to the union, the expulsions occurred the day before contract negotiations were scheduled to begin with the university on Friday. "After nearly a year-long disciplinary process, Miner was expelled without any evidence," the union said in a press release on Friday.

"The first bargaining session between SWC and Columbia University is set to begin on Friday, where the union will present demands to protect international and undocumented student workers."

"Mahmoud Khalil, a UAW card signer, was detained by the U.S. government last week, and Miner is the second SWC member to be targeted. The union's demand for protections for international and undocumented students would make it harder for Columbia to bow to federal pressure and assist DHS in kidnapping student workers."

As of the time of release, SWC stated that Columbia University had canceled negotiations two hours before they were scheduled to begin.

Less than a week after immigration authorities detained Columbia University student protest leader Mahmoud Khalil, Department of Homeland Security agents returned to the university campus on Thursday evening, local time, to serve two search warrants.

Interim President Katrina Armstrong revealed the incident in an email to the university community later on Thursday evening. "It is with deep sorrow that I inform you that we had federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on campus tonight at two University residences. No one was arrested or detained. No items were removed, and no further action was taken."

Armstrong stated that the Department of Homeland Security served Columbia University with "two judicial search warrants signed by a federal magistrate judge authorizing DHS to enter non-public areas of the University and conduct searches of two student rooms."

Armstrong wrote that the university is obligated to comply with search warrants and that "University Public Safety was present at all times."

In addition, the Department of Homeland Security issued a press release stating that Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested a second Columbia University student—a Palestinian from the West Bank—on suspicion of overstaying her student visa.

The Department of Homeland Security stated that she had participated in pro-Palestinian protests. They also stated that they revoked the visa of an Indian doctoral student for "supporting Hamas." The Indian student is said to have "self-deported."

The appearance of Department of Homeland Security agents on campus came hours after the Trump administration sent a letter to Columbia University through the Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the General Services Administration, outlining a series of actions the university must take in order to be considered for the restoration of its slashed $400 million in grant funding.

This includes placing the distinguished Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies under "academic receivership" for at least five years and appointing a new department chair. This would involve the university relinquishing control of the department and having an outside director appointed by the government to manage the department, potentially overseeing everything from curriculum design to the hiring and firing of faculty.

The Trump administration also demanded that Columbia University discipline students involved in last year's Hamilton Hall protests and centralize all disciplinary procedures in the University President's Office, giving the president the power to suspend or expel students, as well as a process for appeals only through the president.

The university was also told to "ban masks intended to conceal identity or intimidate others, but with exceptions for religious and health reasons" and to require those wearing masks to wear their school identification cards on the outside of their clothing.

The Trump administration also wants Columbia University to formalize a definition of antisemitism, referencing the controversial IHRA definition recently adopted by Harvard and New York University.

The Trump administration demanded "immediate compliance" and "hopes to engage in a dialogue on immediate and long-term structural reforms" to restore the institution to "its original mission of innovative research and academic excellence."