Students and faculty are anticipating and bracing for the protests, reflecting off what the campus saw last school year.
Reports and video posted on X show the protests are indeed ramping up once again with graffiti, marching protesters with face coverings, picket signs, and more.
Sophia Witt is executive vice president of Students Supporting Israel. She tells AFN in effect that Columbia has not done enough, if anything to keep this under control.
“As a private institution, I think Columbia has the autonomy to regulate its campus and restrict access to people who try to disrupt the learning environment. A lot of the protestors are not even affiliated with the university. They are outside community members with no affiliation,” Witt said.
The presence of outsiders complicates things, but when students are involved, the university has weighty leverage it isn’t using.
“If these are students, then Columbia has the right to tell these students that they're going to fail this semester if they refuse to attend class and if they keep up these antics. I think that it's… it's just child's play,” Witt said.
Eyewitness to lax security
Witt said she has experienced lax security measures firsthand as someone who has been on the campus and has been able to access it with no security stops or screening.
Previous reports from Campus Reform and the AP indicate Columbia has moved to restrict the outside public from coming onto campus. Its new leadership has also embarked on what it calls "listening sessions" aimed at cooling tensions, but, she said it hasn't been enough.
Her view is that these people are just exploiting the campus as essentially a stage for extremist views.
“So, I think that Columbia is doing a huge disservice to the students who just want to simply learn, and they pay an extremely high tuition to do so. I think these students deserve better than to be subjected to a toxic environment and atmosphere.”
Witt said she thinks students who are Jewish, Zionist, neutral, or simply don't care are exhausted and just want to get back to learning.
She said this is rehashing everything we saw last year.
“With no actual protocol and no repercussions, there's no type of… higher power to answer to in these circumstances, and so they just allow it to persist. Last semester, we saw them excuse students from class for attending these protests. I certainly hope that this doesn't become a pattern for this semester, but I fear that it might."
Witt added that if these students represent the top of our culture, it really scares her for what the future of our society will look like.
