US news: Columbia University punishes pro-Palestinian protesters with temporary degree revocations, expulsions

Columbia University said on Thursday that it had imposed various punishments on students who had occupied a campus building last spring during pro-Palestinian protests.

As reported by Reuters, this decision came a week after the Trump administration revealed it had canceled $400 million in federal grants and contracts due to what it described as the university's inadequate response to antisemitism on campus.

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Columbia University's interim president, Katrina Armstrong, has called the administration's concerns legitimate and said her institution was working with the government to address them. Campus protests and pro-Israel counter-protests have drawn allegations of antisemitism, Islamophobia and racism, Reuters reported.

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The university said in a statement on Thursday that its “judicial board determined findings and issued sanctions to students ranging from multi-year suspensions, temporary degree revocations, and expulsions related to the occupation of Hamilton Hall last spring.”

The university did not disclose the identities of the students who were disciplined or how many students received punishments. Columbia University became a focal point for anti-Israel protests that spread to several U.S. college campuses.

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These protests erupted after the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent U.S.-backed Israeli offensive on Gaza. Protesters called for the university to divest from Israeli interests and for the US to end its military assistance to Israel, among other demands.

The Trump administration has vowed a severe crackdown on what it labels as pro-Hamas protesters.

Over the weekend federal immigration agents detained Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil, a leader of last year's campus protests whom the administration seeks to deport. The administration has said that his detention was the first of many it hopes to carry out. Khalil's deportation has been temporarily blocked by a federal judge.

(With inputs from Reuters)