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.
2 We won’t stop fighting.
3 We want Divestment.
NOW NOW NOW‼️ pic.twitter.com/nCYDrkwyKE— Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine (@ColumbiaSJP) February 26, 2025
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
