Recently, there have been a host of protests, statements, and other gatherings by a variety of groups, and encompassing a variety of political views at Columbia speaking out for academic freedom and in opposition to assaults on the universities. Here are some which have taken place at Columbia and Barnard College (which is affiliated with Columbia).

May 7, Jewish activists from Columbia condemn “the ‘weaponization’ of accusations of antisemitism to silence critics of Israel’s occupation of Palestine and its assault on Gaza.” They traveled to Washington, DC, to lobby Congress. Here’s Columbia graduate student Carly Shaffer: 

Columbia University has decided who is Jewish, who is not Jewish, and then, from there, who is worthy of protection, who is not worthy of protection. And while we as Jewish students are fully, you know, transparent and honest as the repression and harm we have faced as Jewish students is not anything near what our Palestinian peers have faced, we are here directly to talk about this issue of weaponizing antisemitism to harm anybody and anyone, because it’s all interconnected. I mean, look at the abduction of Mahmoud Khalil. Look at the abduction of Mohsen, when you’re using antisemitism as a weapon.¹

May 5: Vigil Demanding Release of Scholars Abducted by ICE. In the first of planned weekly gatherings, dozens of Columbia University faculty and staff—all dressed in black—held a procession across campus and then stood outside the gates. They were calling for the release of Columbia grad Mahmoud Khalil and others targeted for speaking out for Palestinian rights. Columbia classics professor Joseph Howley addressed the gathering: 

We were standing vigil on our campus today at the same time as groups of faculty standing vigil at Tufts University, Georgetown University, Boston University, all of us coming together on our different campuses to bear witness to the detention of our community members, to the fact that students and faculty are being made into political prisoners in this country simply for speaking out on behalf of the Palestinian cause.²

On April 28, Students, faculty, and alumni began a 25-hour "speak out" in support of academic freedom. Hundreds took part in order to “amplify a growing position within the Columbia community that the school administration had caved in to Washington and that the school's academic freedom was under attack.” There were speakers from a variety of institutions, departments, and groups on campus. A number of them condemned the slashing of funding for research. Among the demands put forward: that the University fight back against federal attacks; protect and defend students and international scholars; defend science; re-establish diversity policies; and protect researchers.

April 24: Statement from 200 medical campus faculty and staff to Columbia’s trustees: Protect the future of higher education. The statement condemned the Trump administration for labeling universities and professors as “the enemy,” and upheld the role of universities as “incubators of free, independent thought and are essential to any functioning democracy.” It also condemned Columbia for its use of the NYPD to break up pro-Palestine protests “despite ongoing debate within the University community on how to balance every affiliate’s right to protest and engage in civil disobedience with others’ right to feel safe from harassment on campus.”

April 17: Over 2,600 alumni call on Columbia to “defend and promote academic freedom” in petition. The statement, issued a month after Columbia caved in to the demands by the Trump regime, calls on the University “to stand for academic freedom in the face of assaults on this fundamental principle of a free and open society. We call on alumni of Columbia and other academic institutions to stand together as we seek to defend and promote academic freedom.”

April 15: “'Hands off our university': Faculty rally against federal oversight of Columbia." “Dozens of faculty members from the medical center and the Morningside campus expressed support for academic freedom and the protection of research funding,” the Columbia Spectator reported. “We call on our Board of Trustees to resist the Trump administration’s assault on our students, our research, our teaching, and our patients,” the flyer promoting the rally read. 

“I can’t help but think that if our University leadership had had the fiber and courage a year ago to stand up for the fact that you’re allowed to talk about Palestine on an American university campus, then maybe today, they would have the fiber and the courage to stand up for every single thing,” Professor Joseph Howley said. 

April 15: Coalition formed to “defend academic freedom and civil liberties on campus and beyond.” Graduate students at the School of International and Public Affairs held a press conference announcing the launch of the United Students of America Coalition. The coalition was formed “by a group of students determined to unite our campuses against undue political influence and administrative overreach,” its website reads.

March 28: Columbia faculty and union leaders held a press conference declaring their support for a lawsuit by the American Association of University Professors and the American Federation of Teachers to restore $400 million in research funds cut by Trump. The lawsuit alleges that the cancellation exceeds President Trump’s legal authority and would “chill free speech on matters of substantial political import, solely because the President disagrees with that speech.”

“On the Fight to Defend Academic Freedom and the Fight Against U.S.-Israeli Genocide in Gaza: Toward Principled Unity in the Overall Fight Against Fascism” This editorial, with important orientation for the struggle on campuses across the country, was posted at revcom.us on April 28. The developments at Columbia we’ve reported on above point to the real potential for the kind of principled unity and struggle it calls for. Some key excerpts:  

As the attack on the university and the attack on those who would speak out for the Palestinian people are intertwined, so must be our resistance.

What is needed now is a coming together. The university administrations and faculty must vigorously defend the space for scholars, teachers, researchers and students to work, to research, and to protest U.S.-Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people and the systems in both countries. They must in particular do everything they can to defend those foreign students active around Palestine now being jailed and deported, allowing space once more for organizing and acting against the genocide and for the rights of the Palestinian people. 

At the same time, all the students and faculty who have put themselves on the line against the genocide in Gaza must speak out against the assault on the universities. Even if you disagree with what your university has done, what is at stake now is the extreme danger that a fascist America will mean to people here, and all over the world. 

Plus, over the past week there have been important protests on a number of campuses across the country: 

• May 8, Brooklyn College: dozens of students and faculty members gathered in the afternoon to condemn Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Police arrested several protesters, “taking some people into custody after punching, kicking or slamming them to the ground.”
• May 7, California State Universities (CSUs) at Long Beach, San Jose State, Sacramento State and San Francisco State “launched a joint hunger strike to protest Israel’s starvation campaign against Palestinians in Gaza. The students are demanding ‘full divestment from companies complicit in genocide,’ ‘an end to CSU ties with Israeli institutions’ and ‘protection of free speech on campus.’”³

On May 9, they were joined in a hunger strike by a student at UCLA. And on May 10, six students from Yale announced they have begun a hunger strike! 

• May 5, University of Washington. “In Washington state, police arrested some 30 student activists overnight after they occupied the University of Washington’s engineering building to protest their school’s ties with weapons maker Boeing. The group Students United for Palestinian Equality and Return are demanding ‘that our tuition money and our research not be used to fund and fuel genocide.’”
• May 3, Swarthmore College. “In Pennsylvania, nine people were violently arrested Saturday… as police disbanded a Gaza solidarity encampment that had been named the ‘Hossam Shabat Liberated Zone,’ in honor of the 23-year-old Palestinian journalist killed by Israel in March. Students are demanding Swarthmore ‘divest from Israeli occupation, aggression, and apartheid, and declare itself a sanctuary campus.’”⁴