Columbia Just Made Its Biggest Free Speech Violation Yet
Columbia University's crackdown on free speech just got even worse: The school tried to suspend four student journalists who covered a pro-Palestinian protest at Butler Library this week, according to The Columbia Spectator.
Columbia College and Barnard College issued interim suspensions to one reporter at the Spectator and three student journalists at WKCR, the student-run radio station that has provided consistent on-the-ground coverage of the student demonstrations at the university—including the massive raid by police at the Gaza solidarity protest in Hamilton Hall last year.
Disciplinary emails obtained by the Spectator cited 'information received' from Public Safety, which indicated that Sawyer Huckabee (class of 2026), Natalie Lahr (class of 2028), Celeste Gamble (class of 2027), and Spectator reporter Luisa Sukkar (class of 2026) had been involved in the demonstration in the Lawrence A. Wien Reading Room at Butler Library Wednesday afternoon. However, the student journalists at WCKR wore prominently displayed press placards and Huckabee identified herself as a journalist to public safety officers before leaving the building, the Spectator reported.
New York City Police were dispatched to the university, and 78 students were arrested.
Columbia lifted its suspension on one reporter only five hours after its initial notification Thursday afternoon, but the other three students remained suspended until Friday at 9 a.m.
In an email to alumni Wednesday, Acting President Claire Shipman touted a commitment to free speech while admitting that the university had called the police on its own students. Shipman also made the disturbing move of blaming the protesters for the targeting of its international students.
'I am deeply disturbed at the idea that, at a moment when our international community feels particularly vulnerable, a small group of students would choose to make our institution a target,' Shipman wrote.
But it's the institution, not the students, that has refused to shield its own community from the Trump administration's immigration and free speech crackdown. After Donald Trump rescinded $400 million in federal funding, the university administration agreed to the president's outrageous demands for a complete overhaul of the school's protest policies, as well as the adoption of a new definition of antisemitism, among several other concessions that severely undermined academic independence from the federal government.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote in a post on X Wednesday night that the administration was 'reviewing the visa status of the trespassers and vandals who took over Columbia University's library.'
'Pro-Hamas thugs are no longer welcome in our great nation,' he added.
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