Columbia University: Ilhan Omar's daughter suspended and 108 arrested for Gaza protest

[Coventina]

The university's president said that the "extraordinary step" came after multiple warnings and was necessary to provide a safe environment.

Among the participants in the protest was Minnesota politician Ilhan Omar's daughter, who has been suspended.

Protests have rocked US campuses since the Israel-Gaza war began last year.

Demonstrators constructed an encampment of about 50 tents on campus on Wednesday - and overnight hundreds of students and others rallied with them.

More than 100 had occupied the lawns for over 30 hours, in violation of university rules, New York Mayor Eric Adams told a news conference on Thursday.

The demonstrators were joined by independent presidential candidate Cornel West.

In a statement sent to faculty earlier on Thursday, Columbia University president Dr Nemat Shafik said she had hoped her decision to authorise the New York Police Department to clear the encampment would "never be necessary".

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68851168

********************************************************

Sounds like it was a real mess. People camping in tents on the campus?

Sounds like a definite health / safety issue.

[Redleg]

1. It is also a first amendment issue

I think the health/safety concern is misplaced so long as the students were not actually threatening violence. It would have been better had the students restricted their protest to the permissable areas on campus.

[Coventina]

2. On my campus, any protest cannot interfere with the business of the college, including intereference with

teaching and learning and the ability of other students to learn in a peaceful environment.

It could be that the protest was in violation of those principles.
I don't know what Columbia's rules are, though.

[NavyDem]

3. Private School

Columbia is a private university. The are no more obligated to all free speech than DU is as a private website.

[Redleg]

5. But the police are part of the local government

Also, while our free speech rights technically protect us from government abridgement, there should at least be an ethical consideration of protecting free speech within the non-state institutions.

I noticed your Husker icon. I am a graduate of UNL, way back in 2002.

[Igel]

4. But the Columbia president said that she hadn't seen any anti-semitic protests.

Full stop.

I've seen various videos.

I have trouble reconciling them all as to her testimony. Because one source insists X, another insists Y, and a third insists Z.

Same person. Same backdrop. Same interlocutors. Sometimes overlapping video.

Traduttore, traditore was the old expression.

I'd say redattore, traditore. Or more euphonious, editore, traditore. I've been hung up my my short hairs more than once by duplicitous Yoot-oob videos. (Don't want to slander the .com, they have lawyers.) And by "more than once," meaning more appendages than I can count on (including ears and nose, 14).

[Redleg]

6. That is part of the problem

I assume that some of the protestors are acting in good faith and without anti-semitic animus while others are doing the opposite. The news reports suggest there are a number of motives for the protest and different tactics being used by the protesters. I don't think we should be so quick to silence all protest just because of the bad actors involved in some of the protest. Calls to bring in the national guard are a bit hasty and premature.

Second, with finals week fast approaching, I can't believe anyone has time to protest right now. There certainly haven't been any at my humble state university. If our students were protesting, that would at least explain why class attendance has been so shitty this last few weeks!