Earlier this week, Barnard College, the women's college associated with Columbia University, expelled two students who had disrupted a classroom to spread their pro-Hamas propaganda. CUAD, the group which organized that classroom disruption, immediately demanded that the school reverse the decision and reinstate the two students. As of Monday, Columbia was refusing to do that and stating that classroom disruptions would not be tolerated.
So yesterday, masked CUAD members shoved their way inside a Barnard administration building to hold a sit-in. They injured one person in the process.
During the protest, a small group of masked demonstrators “forcibly entered Milbank Hall” and “physically assaulted a Barnard employee, sending them to the hospital,” Robin Levine, Barnard College’s Vice President for Strategic Communications, said in a statement Wednesday evening.
The New York City Police Department said it responded to the vicinity of West 120 Street and Broadway around 4 p.m. Wednesday and found a 41-year-old man who said he was “shoved by numerous individuals and complained of pain about the body.” He was taken to Mount Sinai Morningside Hospital in stable condition. Police said no arrests were made.
“They encouraged others to enter campus without identification, showing blatant disregard for the safety of our community,” Levine said. “Violence and intimidation have no place here.”
About 50 masked Hamas supporters then sat in a hallway outside Barnard Dean Leslie Grinage’s office banging drums, chanting and making demands.
LIVE AT BARNARD COLLEGE: pic.twitter.com/IDwcdq3Zft
— Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine (@ColumbiaSJP) February 26, 2025
This went on for a while:
1 We are the students.
— Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine (@ColumbiaSJP) February 26, 2025
2 We won’t stop fighting.
3 We want Divestment.
NOW NOW NOW‼️ pic.twitter.com/nCYDrkwyKE
The group had a list of demands, starting with reinstating the two expelled students and continuing with granting amnesty to all pro-Hamas students who had every been disciplined on campus.
OUR DEMANDS: pic.twitter.com/bQt3AHxOz5
— Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine (@ColumbiaSJP) February 26, 2025
This protest wound up disrupting classes in the building which is what got the other two students expelled.
Barnard told faculty members who had classes in Milbank after 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday to either cancel or relocate, according to an email sent to faculty obtained by Spectator.
Instead of having the group removed by campus security or the NYPD, the school started a long negotiation with them.
Kristina Milnor, a professor of classics at Barnard, told protesters at 5:20 p.m. that Grinage was “happy to meet” with protesters under the condition that she met with a maximum of three “unmasked and uncovered” Barnard students, who would act as negotiators. Milnor was the first of three faculty members who liaised between the protesters and the administration during the sit-in.
Milnor laid out other conditions from Grinage, telling the group that the dean wanted to see Barnard IDs for the student negotiators. Milnor also told the protesters that Grinage would meet with demonstrators if she had a witness and a public safety officer present and no legal observers present. Milnor said Grinage did not want the meeting to be video recorded or posted on social media.
This negotiation dragged on for hours. The pro-Hamas protest group didn't really want to go into a meeting, they wanted to dither and exercise their power.
The protesters demanded that all Columbia and Barnard students involved in the sit-in receive amnesty, including the negotiators, and that Barnard not pursue disciplinary action for the sit-in. The protesters told Milanich that the three Barnard student representatives would speak with the dean, but demanded a public meeting, with the negotiation “in front of everyone.”
The protesters said they agreed to only send Barnard students as representatives as long as there were no required ID checks.
At one point they even got the Dean to ask permission to use the bathroom, another sign that they were in control, not the administrators.
Dean Leslie Grinage of @BarnardCollege just asked for our permission to use the bathroom. Guess who has the upper hand now? pic.twitter.com/TwwtX811me
— Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine (@ColumbiaSJP) February 27, 2025
This really brings back memories of the Evergreen State College takeover in 2017. There was a moment where the college president, George Bridges, said he needed to pee and was told to hold it.
At one point, Bridges explains that he needs “to pee,” to which one protester initially responds by sharply instructing him to “hold it,” though he was eventually escorted to a nearby bathroom by a team of protesters.
Students were handed flyers during the sit-in explaining that they were breaking a bunch of different campus rules, but they were also told the school wouldn't pursue any discipline if they left voluntarily.
Barnard distributed notices to protesters before they dispersed, outlining the ways in which the students had violated Barnard’s rules and policies, according to a photo posted by Bwog in the evening.
“You are in violation of College rules and policies, including but not limited to Barnard’s Rules for the Maintenance of Public Order, Barnard’s Temporary Policy for Safe Campus Demonstrations, Barnard’s Posting Policy, the Barnard Code of Conduct,” the notice read.
The notice read that if Barnard students did not leave the building, they would be “subject to disciplinary action.” Barnard wrote that if the protesters left before 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday, it would not pursue disciplinary action for protesters’ presence in the building.
The outcome of all of the disruption at Barnard is that the pro-Hamas protest group did leave at 10:30pm without a meeting; however, a meeting was scheduled for today at 1pm (around the time this post goes up).
I don't think there is any chance the school will reinstate the expelled students, but they are letting the pro-Hamas goons run around like they own the place, breaking numerous rules and policies, disrupting classes, damaging property and even injuring people. The school has verbally condemned all of this behavior but it also promised not to hold anyone accountable for what happened yesterday. In effect, Barnard is not only giving them a pass for their poor behavior (and terrorist sympathies) it is rewarding them with a meeting with the dean. This is a bad idea because if you reward this behavior you will get more of it. Why is it so hard for campus administrators to learn this lesson?
Actions have consequences. Barnard was right to expel the students who disrupted class & distributed fliers calling for the death of Jews. Negotiating with pro-terror protestors who are breaking campus policies should be out of the question. https://t.co/RVLQ83AxEk
— House Committee on Education & Workforce (@EdWorkforceCmte) February 27, 2025
Update: This is a faculty member?
I asked an unhinged Barnard faculty member if she condemns the reported assault against a public safety officer on campus, who was hospitalized. Listen to her nonsensical word salad in support of these hateful and reckless anti-Israel protestors. How are these our faculty… pic.twitter.com/l593N15R6k
— David lederer (@Davidlederer6) February 27, 2025
Her name is Jackie Orr and she's a Barnard professor of Women’s Gender & Sexual Studies. Of course she is.
And as I mentioned above, here they are deciding whether or not the dean can use the bathroom.
Watch as the students occupying a building at Barnard decide whether they will allow their Dean to use the bathroom.
— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) February 27, 2025
This is beyond embarrassing for the Barnard administration. pic.twitter.com/jcxlki8ipO
FIRE is saying all the right things about this incident. This was not free speech, this was disruption of classes. Letting people get away with this behavior is a mistake.
2/ Reports that Barnard administrators negotiated with the agitators last night, offering to let some avoid punishment for clear misconduct, are deeply concerning.
— FIRE (@TheFIREorg) February 27, 2025
Behavior that gets rewarded gets repeated. Barnard cannot reward misconduct or criminality. pic.twitter.com/RPhtJb54lv
5/ American campuses boast an impressive legacy of hosting peaceful protests. Barnard can only follow that tradition and foster a healthy climate for free expression when they have full tolerance for free speech — and zero tolerance for misconduct.https://t.co/xjJT9rHuTX
— FIRE (@TheFIREorg) February 27, 2025
Protesters are now gathering on campus and chanting the usual.
Barnard students chanting for all of the land between the river and the sea to be Arab. This is a blatant call for genocide! pic.twitter.com/tQOVaBwvIb
— Eliana Goldin (@Eliana_Goldin) February 27, 2025
Here's video of the students pushing their way inside yesterday.
The average Uber driver has an infinitely more developed moral sensibility than dullard Barnard students. Where is @EricAdams to arrest these thugs? #IvyLeagueIdiots pic.twitter.com/jk7dhf4fLH
— Rabbi Shmuley (@RabbiShmuley) February 27, 2025
It's not clear if the meeting today is going to happen as the school demanded the three students come to the meeting unmasked and the students seem to be unwilling to do that.
🚨BREAKING:
— Unity of Fields (@unityoffields) February 27, 2025
Barnard admin has reneged on last night’s commitment to allow negotiators to attend the meeting masked. As per a new email from a faculty mediator, student negotiators are now being asked to unmask during the meeting, exposing them to greater risk of doxxing,… https://t.co/pd9g3u0gS2 pic.twitter.com/hssNxRqugK
I'll add updates below as more information becomes available.
Update: One more update. Barnard is claiming they did not promise amnesty to students who forced their way into the building last night.
Barnard made “no promises of amnesty” to the protesters at Wednesday’s sit-in at Milbank Hall, Robin Levine, Barnard’s vice president for strategic communications, wrote in a Thursday morning statement to Spectator around 10:30 a.m.
“The masked protesters left Milbank Hall after receiving final written notice and being informed that Barnard would be forced to consider additional necessary measures to protect the campus if they did not leave on their own,” Levine wrote. “No promises of amnesty were made, and no concessions were negotiated.”
Does this mean there will be consequences for those students? No one is saying that so far as I can tell.
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