Columbia University officials began suspending students Monday evening in an ongoing pro-Palestinian encampment after offering them a reprieve if they left voluntarily earlier in the day.
The institution plans to bar them from campus as well as residential buildings if they do not exit the encampment, which has over 100 tents and student protesters. Suspended seniors will not be eligible to graduate.
Following an impasse in negotiations, university leaders began informing students in writing Monday morning that they will not face suspension and will be eligible to complete the semester in good standing if they disperse by 2 p.m.
The ultimatum was documented in a form school officials passed out to students in the tent encampment, which has become the hub of national unrest over the war in Gaza.
“We urge those in the encampment to voluntarily disperse,” Columbia President Minouche Shafik wrote Monday in a university-wide email. “We are consulting with a broader group in our community to explore alternative internal options to end this crisis as soon as possible.”
Columbia University Apartheid Divest, the group behind the demonstration, said in a news release: “We will not move until Columbia meets our demands or we are moved by force.”
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