Student protesters at Columbia University declared Tuesday morning that they have taken over a building near the campus’s South Lawn, raising the prospect of further turmoil at the Ivy League institution. Hours earlier, the university began suspending students who refused to leave a pro-Palestinian encampment on campus grounds.
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A statement posted by student groups said protesters have “taken matters into their own hands,” adding that the students plan to remain in Hamilton Hall until Columbia divests financially from Israel. A video shared by the group showed rows of students entering the building, carrying barricades.
Columbia said Tuesday that it has limited access to the Morningside campus to students residing on campus and essential staff, with only one point of entry and exit open. Overnight, the university texted students and faculty members, warning of “major protest activity on the Morningside campus in and around Hamilton Hall” and urging them to “avoid [the] vicinity if possible.”
12:32 PM: Analysis from Maham Javaid, Staff Writer, General Assignment Desk
“The charges ranged from failure to obey a lawful command and resisting without violence to trespass after warning,” she said. “One was charged with battery on a law enforcement officer for spitting on an officer.”
12:07 PM: A quiet morning on Columbia’s campus, a day after building takeover
NEW YORK — Columbia’s campus is on an ever-tightening lockdown, with some students blocked from accessing campus libraries and cafeterias during the run-up to final exams. On Monday, spokespeople for the student coalition operating as the de facto management of the encampment, Columbia University Apartheid Divest, called on protesters there to “see how much of this campus we can reclaim” after the administration’s 2 p.m. deadline for vacating came and went with little apparent effect. That was followed around midnight by some students’ takeover of Hamilton Hall, where they remain barricaded.
“Everyone is currently in panic mode,” said Mariam Jallow, 21, a junior majoring in history who is next school year’s incoming student body president.
But outside the private university’s closed gates at 116th Street and Broadway, a main entrance to campus, passersby had a tough time Tuesday morning discerning the heightened tensions. As a garbage truck drove by, close inspection revealed the crumpled cardboard or battered Israeli and Palestinian flags cleared up as debris on Columbia’s main lawn. The intersection — for days a showcase for all manner of external supporters and agitators — was quiet and empty, save for an eager press corps.
For roughly the past week, students formed long lines at a central entrance to campus on 117th Street and Broadway, where they scanned their IDs to enter. On Tuesday morning, the entrance was locked. A NYPD officer stood outside it.
Columbia asked people to avoid coming to its Morningside campus and limited access to students living there and essential employees.
Within the gates, the encampment appeared to be a shell of its heyday; tents remained but seemed largely derelict, and only a handful of students puttered around.
“There’s no one on campus. It’s empty,” said Steven Andrews, 22, a junior majoring in mechanical engineering who lives on campus. “It’s just strange. It’s busy outside with reporters and students trying to get in, and then just a ghost town when you enter the gates.”
Despite the night’s takeover escalation, hour after hour throughout the morning passed with a notable absence of any protest or counterprotest chants. And then just before 11 a.m., a pushcart brimming with fresh pro-Palestinian protest signs appeared. And a drum.
