Columbia University officials said Wednesday they would immediately remove any future encampments on campus and threatened demonstrators with arrest amid reports that students were planning another wave of pro-Palestinian protests.
“We have been made aware of possible plans to establish encampments on Columbia’s campuses,” the New York institution said in a public safety notice. “We want to clearly communicate that camping and encampments on Columbia’s campuses are prohibited by University Policy.”
More than 100 people wearing masks to hide their identities met Tuesday to discuss establishing multiple encampments at Columbia this week, according to an NBC News report based on anonymous sources and a recording of the meeting.
At the time, the protesters intended to begin demonstrating at Columbia’s main campus in the Morningside Heights neighborhood on Thursday, followed by the Ivy League institution’s Manhattanville location on Friday, NBC reported Wednesday.
The planned demonstrations would come about a year after Columbia students first erected an encampment to protest the Israel-Hamas war and call on the university to divest from companies with links to Israel. The encampment at Columbia kicked off similar demonstrations across the nation’s colleges, stoking anger from conservative lawmakers and leading to hundreds of student arrests.
Since then, the university said it has hired more public safety officers, increased campus patrols and restricted access to its main campus.
Still, President Donald Trump threatened to pull federal funding from colleges that don't crack down on “illegal protests” in a March social media post that drew backlash from free speech and civil rights advocates.
The Trump administration made good on this threat when it pulled $400 million in federal contracts and grants from Columbia in March, claiming it was yanking the funding over concerns the university hasn’t done enough to protect Jewish students from harassment. The administration has since pulled large swaths of funding — or threatened to — from other well-known colleges over similar allegations.
A growing number of lawmakers, free speech experts and academics are accusing Trump of weaponizing antisemitism to target colleges. On Thursday, five Jewish Democratic senators lambasted the president for using "what is a real crisis as a pretext to attack people and institutions who do not agree with you."
"By doing so, he not only fails to address the threat of antisemitism but also exploits it to delegitimize higher education, while often ignoring or downplaying the rise of antisemitism within his own party," they said in a statement.
Last month, Columbia ceded to several demands from the Trump administration — including revamping its protest policies — with the hopes of retaining access to its federal funding.
U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon, along with other federal officials, has praised the university’s compliance. But the Trump administration has yet to publicly reinstate its funding and is reportedly pursuing a consent decree against Columbia, which would give a federal judge oversight of the institution’s compliance with the administration’s demands.
The administration is facing at least one lawsuit over allegations that it is overstepping its authority at Columbia.
If protesters establish a new encampment at Columbia, the university vowed to immediately remove tents and other structures, restrict access to the campus and instruct demonstrators to leave, according to Wednesday’s announcement. If they don’t leave, they could face “removal from campus and possible arrest,” Columbia’s notice said.
“We value free expression and the right to protest,” the notice said. “These activities must be conducted in accordance with University Rules and Policies to ensure the safety of our community and that academic and other campus activities can continue unimpeded.”
