Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.It’s just after lunchtime in New York, and dozens of students have formed an ad-hoc queue and are encircling the perimeter of the Columbia University encampment that has become the epicentre of aThe aim, they said, was to guard the tents and students who defied a university request to voluntarily disperse from the south lawn by 2pm on Monday or face suspension.
Amid growing pressure from Congress over a rise in antisemitism on college campuses, Columbia president Minouche Shafik – a former deputy governor of the Bank of England – called in police that day to break up the encampment. The powder keg was ignited.
The ultimatum on Monday, for instance, came after negotiations for an “orderly removal of the encampment from the lawn” reached an impasse. “All year, we have sought to facilitate opportunities for our students and faculty to engage in constructive dialogue, and we have provided ample space for protests and vigils to take place peacefully and without disruptions to academic life,” she said.Columbia University president Minouche Shafik.
A similar hearing was held in December involving Harvard University president Claudine Gay and University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill, both of whom were forced to resign after failing to say directly that calls for the genocide of Jews violated their universities’ codes of conduct.