Columbia University Senate votes to investigate administration actions against pro-Palestinian demonstrators

Columbia’s campus has been uneasy since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out on October 7. Pro-Palestinian students and staff are demanding that the university cut all ties with Israel in protest against Israeli violence in Gaza. Israeli and Jewish students and staff have reported anti-Semitic incidents.

More than a week ago, Shafik called in the police to clear a tent camp of pro-Palestinian students. He arrested a hundred students. According to the Senate, the university’s administration also hired a private investigation agency that allegedly harassed students. The private detectives entered rooms without permission and demanded access to their phones, the Senate said.

Hearing in House of Representatives

Republicans in the House of Representatives called Shafik to a hearing earlier this month into anti-Semitic incidents on campus. A similar hearing in December landed the presidents of Harvard and Pennsylvania State University in hot water, accusing them of downplaying anti-Semitism. Both were later forced to resign, although an accusation of plagiarism was decisive in the case of Harvard President Claudine Gay.

Shafik initially seemed to have fared better, promising a tough crackdown on anti-Semitism. After the hearing, however, Columbia students and employees accused her of cowardice. She would have listened to radical right-wing Republicans. Shafik would thus have endangered freedom of expression at the university.

The Republicans felt that they were still taking too little action against anti-Semitism. House Speaker Mike Johnson demanded her resignation.

Under fire from left and right

The university’s Senate, made up of academics, students and other staff, does not have the power to fire Shafik. Her position has been weakened, because the left and right are attacking her.

In the meantime, students have once again set up a tent camp on campus. Evacuation by the police has been postponed until further notice because negotiations are still ongoing.