Columbia University kicked off the new semester on Tuesday, but the tense anti-Israel protests that have divided the campus showed no signs of abating.
On the first day of term at an Ivy League school in New York City this week, protesters gathered at the school's gates as NYPD drones circled overhead. Police said they classified the rally as “peaceful,” though at least two people were arrested.
Cornell Law Professor William Jacobson, president of the Legal Insurrection Foundation and EqualProtect.org, told Fox News Digital that he doesn't expect relations between the campuses to improve anytime soon.
“I think the threats and hostility will reach a fever pitch as we get closer to Oct. 7,” he said, the anniversary of an attack by Hamas on southern Israel in which Palestinian fighters committed war crimes, including taking hostages and killing civilians.
“[Protesters have] They have already announced plans to hold celebrations. [that day]”
“We're dealing with cults on campuses, and it's dangerous and it's difficult,” he said.
Republican leaders vow to take 'action' as anti-Israel agitators attack Columbia University
Anti-Israel demonstrations continued on Tuesday on the Columbia University campus in New York City. (AP/Yuki Iwamura)
Former Columbia University president Nemat Shafik resigned last month over his handling of campus protests.[took] Considerable damage [her] Shafik, who served as the school's third president for eight months, mobilized hundreds of armed police to arrest more than 30 protesters who had barricaded themselves inside the school, sparking fierce controversy.
Interim President Katrina Armstrong is now tasked with maintaining order on the troubled campus, and since she took over, new restrictions and changes have been made on campus to control conflict, according to the school's updated code of conduct.
Camping is now prohibited on school grounds, and new signs and security guards have been installed on the school's south lawn. According to ReutersGates to the campus that have been open to surrounding roads for decades will be closed under a new system that limits student access, with security guards only allowing people with Columbia University IDs and pre-registered guests in. Officials will install fences and wheeled gates around the campus perimeter that will be used to cordon off small areas.
The change came after the nonprofit Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression ranked Columbia 250th (second from the bottom) in its annual ranking of colleges for free speech.
Jewish student at New York university gets 'target on his back' amid violent anti-Israel protests
On August 27, 2024, as the new semester began in New York City, a small group of pro-Israel demonstrators and anti-Israel protesters gathered in front of Columbia University for a protest to “uncover hate on campus.” Columbia University had been the site of a tent that Palestinian supporters had set up for months, but was eventually dispersed by police. Many Israeli and Jewish students and faculty expressed dissatisfaction, accusing the university of allowing anti-Semitism to exist on campus. (Spencer Pratt/Getty Images)
The group's survey found that for every conservative student on campus, there are five liberal students, and 66% of respondents said they had engaged in self-censorship on campus at least once or twice a month.
“Starting in October 2023, 'identity-collection trucks' will be stationed around my campus and any student who expresses criticism of Israel will be identified by their full name and have their huge photo displayed on a large truck equipped with a digital screen under the label 'Antisemite of the Week,'” one freshman told investigators.
“Students have reported this to the university authorities multiple times but they have not done anything for months. My friends have also lost jobs and internship opportunities because of their political beliefs,” the student said.
Another student said, “Most professors and classes assume progressive ideas are fact” and that “most of the curriculum is edited to fit this narrative…to cater to students who agree.”
Masked anti-Israel protesters demonstrate at Columbia University as students check in for the first day of classes
Pro-Palestinian supporters set up a protest camp and continue to demonstrate on the Columbia University campus in New York City on April 29, 2024. (Spencer Pratt/Getty Images)
Jacobson said that from his experience at Cornell and what he has heard from students at Columbia, the protest culture is largely “faculty-driven” and that professors “are[ing] They have the illusion of being very revolutionary.”
“In fact, they are very careerist, very bourgeois. They don't sacrifice themselves at all, but they are happy for students to sacrifice themselves,” he said.
In an effort to combat hostility on campus, Columbia University's Anti-Semitism Task Force released a second report detailing complaints from students who have been harassed on campus because of their Jewish faith.
“Friends on campus were spat on and called horrible names. A very close friend of mine was called a genocide enthusiast and then a baby-killer enthusiast,” one student wearing a traditional headscarf told the task force. “This was just a few days after October 7.”
Dozens more students reported “distressing experiences of hostility” in the 91-page report.
“There's denial, just like there's denial about Oct. 7,” Jacobson said of the report and its lowest ranking on freedom of expression. “I think that's a good thing. It may not lead to positive change, but at least people can no longer deny that what's going on is happening.”
“It's not surprising that the most active schools are the ones with the least freedom of expression. The activity is geared towards intimidation,” Jacobson said. “This isn't a protest where people want to have a debate, this is a protest geared towards stifling debate.”
When asked by Fox News Digital for comment on the allegations of a lack of free expression on campus, Interim President Armstrong reiterated parts of a message he recently sent to students.
“Everyone needs to feel included, that their voice matters, and that they belong here,” Armstrong wrote. “Protests need to be managed effectively and fairly. To do that, we need to simultaneously uphold two truths: that our mission depends on free speech and open debate, and that our mission depends equally on an environment in which students can learn, free from harassment and discrimination. Upholding these two truths requires that we understand and effectively enforce our policies, rules, and procedures, just as we do in the society around us.”
