Pro-Palestinian students stage sit-in at Barnard College to protest expulsions

The Guardian

27-02-2025

A group of pro-Palestinian student protesters stormed a Barnard College building on Wednesday to protest the expulsion last month of two students who interrupted a university class on Israel.
The demonstrators, who numbered in the dozens, staged a sit-in outside Barnard dean Leslie Grinage's office in the college's Milbank Hall, the Columbia Spectator reported.
A Barnard employee was 'physically assaulted' as students entered the building and was taken to an area hospital, a spokesperson for the college said in a statement. The 41-year-old man complained of 'pain about the body', the New York Times reported, citing a police spokesperson. He was later reported to be in stable condition.
Video posted online by Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine shows the protesters, wearing masks and dressed in kaffiyeh scarves, rushing past university security to join others at the sit-in. Once there, demonstrators chanted slogans in support of Palestine, clapped and banged on drums.
Protesters had gathered to demand that Barnard to reverse the students' expulsions, which came after they interrupted a 'History of Modern Israel' class on 21 January, taught by Professor Avi Shilon, a lecturer with Columbia University's Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies.
The masked students who interrupted the class condemned it as 'Zionist propaganda', in a statement read aloud. 'Israel is backed by world's most violent and imperialist forces and they attempt to erase this truth from our collective consciousness,' said one masked demonstrator, referring to the class.
As of Thursday morning, more than 113,000 people have signed a letter requesting that the expelled students be reinstated. Barnard College has not confirmed the status of the students to the Guardian.
Among other demands, demonstrators on Wednesday called for charges to be dropped against students who engaged in other pro-Palestinian actions, an 'abolition' of the current Barnard disciplinary process and for a public meeting with Grinage and Barnard president Laura Rosenbury.
Three faculty members acted as facilitators between demonstrators and Dean Grinage, the Spectator reported. Students ultimately stayed for more than six hours before leaving the building at about 10.30pm, with a private meeting reportedly scheduled for Thursday.
In a update issued Thursday morning, Robin Levine, Barnard's vice-president of strategic communications, said that students left Milbank Hall after receiving 'final written notice' that the college would consider 'additional necessary measures to protect the campus' if demonstrators did not vacate.
'No promises of amnesty were made, and no concessions were negotiated,' said Levine.
Barnard College representatives condemned accused protesters of showing a 'disregard for the safety of our community'. At least nine NYPD vans were parked near the university by the time the sit in disbanded.
Another protest was planned to take place Thursday afternoon outside Barnard College.
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Barnard is an affiliate of Columbia University, which became a focal point for the pro-Palestinian protests that spread across the country after 7 October 2023. The latest action recalled a student occupation of Hamilton Hall last year, which resulted in the arrests of more than 100 students.
Demonstrations have largely died down in 2025, in part due to protest restrictions imposed by campuses to prevent a repeat of the unrest in the last school year. But Donald Trump and other rightwing legislators have called for a crackdown on student protests under the guise of combatting antisemitism and leftist views at US colleges. One of Trump's executive orders calls on agencies to explore ways to deport pro-Palestinian international students.
Hundreds of people gathered on Wednesday afternoon to protect the mosque – but the planned pro-Israel rally did not go ahead.
Also on Wednesday, New York governor Kathy Hochul ordered the City University of New York (Cuny) to immediately remove a job posting advertising a Palestinian studies professor role at the state university system's Hunter College, in what Cuny's union condemned as a blatant violation of academic freedom. Protests against Hochul were also planned for on Thursday.