Columbia students occupy university building as tensions rise on campuses

Columbia students occupy university building as tensions rise on campuses

Student protesters at Columbia University declared Tuesday morning that they had taken over a building near the campus’s South Lawn, raising the prospect of further turmoil at the Ivy League institution. Hours earlier, the university started suspending students who refused to leave a pro-Palestinian encampment on campus grounds.

A statement posted by student groups on Instagram said protesters have “taken matters into their own hands,” adding that the students plan to remain in Hamilton Hall until Columbia divests financially from Israel. A video shared by the group showed rows of students entering the building, carrying barricades. The university did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the situation.

In a later statement circulated to media outlets, the protesters said an “autonomous group” had taken over the building — which includes the classics department and the departments of Germanic and Slavic languages — and renamed it “Hind Hall” in honor of Hind Rajab. The 6-year-old was killed in Gaza this year as she called to be rescued; a Washington Post investigation found that Israeli armored vehicles were present in the area at the time of the incident.

Photos showed students barricading themselves inside rooms in the building as crowds gathered outside. In the statement, the students described taking over the building as the “next generation” of previous student movements at Columbia and said they would remain in place until the university concedes to their demands: “divestment, financial transparency, and amnesty.” In 1968, students occupied five campus buildings in protest as they sought to end Columbia’s affiliation with a think tank involved in Pentagon weapons research, among other demands.

Minouche Shafik, Columbia’s president, said Monday in a statement that the university will not divest from Israel, a core demand of the protesters. By that evening, the Columbia administration began suspending students who refused to leave the encampment after days of negotiations failed to reach a resolution. Dozens of defiant protesters remained at the encampment despite the university’s warnings.

The protracted standoff between student protesters and the administration comes as the academic year is ending and threatens to disrupt Columbia’s May 15 commencement.

At the University of Texas at Austin, police in riot gear arrested and pepper-sprayed pro-Palestinian protesters Monday afternoon. At least 43 were arrested, according to George Lobb, an attorney with the Austin Lawyers Guild representing protesters. The number was likely to be higher, the university said.

For more than three hours, state troopers encircled a group of protesters while Austin police carried out arrests in batches, said Annie Murphy, a doctoral student at the university.

Police then started pepper-spraying students who were gathered near a van into which the arrested students were being moved, according to Murphy and another doctoral student, Gwen Berumen. Chaos ensued.

“We were coughing and trying to breathe,” Murphy said.

Texas state troopers use pepper spray against pro-Palestinian protesters at the University of Texas at Austin on Monday.

Berumen described the aftereffects: “My skin — arms, neck and around the mouth — burned for a few hours.”

The university did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the students’ accounts.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said he had ordered new arrests Monday afternoon. “No encampments will be allowed. Instead, arrests are being made,” Abbott wrote on social media.

So far, more than 1,000 arrests have taken place across campuses nationwide, according to a count kept by The Washington Post.

Molly Hennessey-Fiske contributed to this report.