Just as summer vacation is getting underway, students at Columbia University in New York are left dealing with a raft of looming disciplinary charges from their participation in campus protests against Israel’s war in Gaza. But some students at the school said 11th-hour changes to disciplinary procedures are making it harder for students to defend themselves.
On Wednesday night, a group of Columbia Law students wrote a 32-page letter addressed to Columbia administrators that accused the university of imposing “egregious and draconian restrictions on the already non-existent due process protections.”
The letter charges the school with letting a newly created office impose unprecedented rules that infringe upon student protections, including by preventing students from having legal or personal supporters during hearings, and imposing arbitrary time limits on when they can communicate with those supporters.
“Over the past year, we’ve seen Columbia really weaponize its disciplinary process against students speaking out for Palestinian human rights,” Bassam Khawaja, a lecturer at Columbia Law School, told The Intercept. “And unlike police arrests, this process happens in virtual silence, but carries significant consequences for their academic standing and future careers. It’s hard to see this wildly disproportionate response as anything other than an attempt to chill speech on this issue.”
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Prem Thakker is a politics reporter for The Intercept. His interests include climate and the environment, corporate and political corruption, civil rights and justice, and labor. Prem previously worked at The New Republic, The American Prospect, and CNN. He grew up in North Dakota and now lives in Washington, D.C.
