Videos circulating online, posted by Columbia Students for Justice in Paleostine on X, show the masked students lining a hallway in Milbank Hall, the oldest building on campus, beating drums and loudly chanting through megaphones.
One of the X posts made by the group — which proclaims "long live the student intifada" in its bio — includes a list of demands, among them a reversal of the expulsions, amnesty for students punished during last year’s anti-Israel campus protests and a public meeting with Dean Leslie Grinage and Barnard President Laura Rosenbury.
The group’s demands also include "abolition of the corrupt Barnard disciplinary process and complete transparency for current, past, and future disciplinary proceedings."
The pro-Hamas
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...student group claimed in a follow-up post that Barnard public safety has "harassed and shoved" several students, and knocked at least one to the ground. "Who are they really protecting?" the manic social media post read in all-caps.
| The Times of Israel adds: |
Jewish students post online that they have been blocked from entering the building and attending classes.
BREAKING: 50+ COLUMBIA STUDENTS FLOOD ADMIN OFFICE OF BARNARD COLLEGE DEMANDING
— Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine (@ColumbiaSJP) February 26, 2025
1. Immediate reversal of the two Barnard students’ expulsions.
2. Amnesty for all students disciplined for pro-Palestine action or thought. Drop all the charges now!
3. A public meeting with Dean… pic.twitter.com/QKSBQ6jIUg
| Update from the Times of Israel at 3:40 a.m. ET: |
Pro-Palestinian protesters who pushed their way into Barnard College’s Milbank Hall, which houses the offices of the dean, and assaulted a school employee, have departed, according to the school.
The protesters left Milbank Hall in the night “without further incident,” Barnard President Laura Rosenbury says in a statement.
“But let us be clear: Their disregard for the safety of our community remains completely unacceptable,” she says.
The school had warned that if the students were not gone by 9:30 p.m. officials could be forced to take “additional, necessary measures to protect our campus.”
The student group Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine said on the social platform X that protesters dispersed after the administration agreed to meet with them this afternoon.