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NEW YORK — Columbia University has taken disciplinary action against some students who occupied a campus building during pro-Palestinian demonstrations last spring. Some have been expelled or suspended, and diplomas have been temporarily rescinded for some graduates, according to university officials on Thursday.
The university stated in a campus-wide email that a judicial board imposed various penalties on students who occupied Hamilton Hall last spring in protest of the conflict in Gaza.
Columbia did not specify the number of students expelled, suspended, or who had their degrees revoked. However, they said the decisions were based on a review of “the severity of behaviors.”
This disciplinary action follows a months-long investigation and coincides with the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a prominent Palestinian activist on campus, by federal immigration authorities last Saturday. President Donald Trump has indicated that this arrest is “the first of many” similar actions.
Concurrently, the Trump Administration has cut over $400 million in federal funding to the university, citing a failure to address antisemitism on campus. Congressional Republicans have specifically pointed to the university’s alleged failure to discipline students involved in the Hamilton Hall takeover as evidence of inaction.
The building occupation followed a tent encampment, which spurred similar demonstrations at college campuses nationwide.
On April 30, 2024, a smaller group of students and their supporters barricaded themselves inside Hamilton Hall using furniture and padlocks, marking a significant escalation of campus protests.
At the request of university administrators, hundreds of New York police officers entered the campus the following night, arresting numerous individuals involved in both the occupation and the encampment.
During a court hearing in June, the Manhattan district attorney’s office announced it would not pursue criminal charges against 31 of the 46 individuals initially arrested for trespassing inside the administration building.
However, the students still faced disciplinary hearings and potential expulsion from the university.
The final sanctions, announced on Thursday, were the result of a comprehensive process that included hearings for each student conducted by the University Judicial Board.
Some students who participated in the encampment but not the building takeover were informed that they would not face further disciplinary action beyond their previous suspensions.
“With respect to other events taking place last spring, the UJB’s determinations recognized previously imposed disciplinary action,” the university stated.
The disciplinary process has faced scrutiny from House Republicans, who demanded that university administrators provide disciplinary records of students involved in campus protests, or risk losing billions of dollars in federal funding.
On Thursday, Khalil and seven students, identified by pseudonyms, filed a lawsuit to prevent a Congressional committee from obtaining these records for students at Columbia and Barnard College, a women’s college affiliated with Columbia.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Manhattan against the two schools, the Republican-led House Committee on Education and the Workforce, and its chairman, Republican Rep. Tim Walberg of Michigan, seeks a permanent injunction to prevent Congress from forcing the schools to provide the records and the universities from complying.
Last month, the committee sent a letter demanding that Columbia and Barnard provide the records or risk losing federal funding. The plaintiffs argue that the committee is abusing its power in an attempt “to chill and suppress speech and association based on the viewpoint expressed” and that the investigation “threatens to significantly infringe on First Amendment rights.”
In a statement emailed by a committee spokesperson, Walberg said, “This lawsuit changes nothing.”
The information requested “is critical to its consideration of legislation on this issue” and necessary to “hold schools accountable for their failures to address rampant antisemitism on our college campuses,” he added.
Barnard spokespeople did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment, and Columbia declined to discuss the pending litigation.
Separately, a newly created disciplinary board has initiated a series of new cases against students—including Khalil—who have voiced criticism of Israel, sparking concern among free speech advocates. Khalil was not among the protesters accused of seizing Hamilton Hall.
The expulsion announcement was praised by some faculty members, including Gil Zussman, chair of the electrical engineering department and a member of Columbia’s Task Force on Antisemitism.
“Finally demonstrating that breaking university rules has consequences is an important first step towards going back to the core missions of research and teaching,” he said in a post on the social platform X.
