Latest news with #ButlerLibrary
New York Post
5 days ago
- Politics
- New York Post
I'm a proud American who wanted to stay on the frontlines in Ukraine rather than come home to Columbia University
United States Air Force drone pilot Sam Nahins just returned to NYC after three weeks volunteering on the frontlines in Ukraine. Nahins, 32, — a Jewish graduate student in fine arts at Columbia University was among those trapped inside Butler Library in May when it was taken over by anti-Israel protesters — tells The Post's Doree Lewak about his anxious homecoming. I'm a proud American patriot — I love this country to death. That's why I enlisted in the US Air Force for six years as soon as I graduated high school in North Carolina. I spent three weeks this summer volunteering on the frontlines in Ukraine with the relief group Help is on the WayUA, providing supplies to the frontlines. Advertisement We survived getting shelled, being attacked by drones and skirted artery fire 24/7. 4 US Air Force veteran Sam Nahins just returned from three weeks of volunteering in Ukraine. Courtesy of Sam Nahins But when it was over, my feeling was, 'I don't want to come home.' Advertisement Just look at my school's recent history. Last month, the notorious group Unity of Fields — the same group which took over Columbia's Butler Library — posted on X an image of mass veterans coffins draped in American flags accompanied by a heart emoji and caption reading, 'soon inshallah.' It means 'G-d willing.' That's who I'm going to school with. Of course I'm not going to feel welcome. Veterans aren't looking for a thank you. We just don't want to be called baby killers anymore. We don't want to be threatened and disrespected like this. Advertisement 4 Nahins says he was trapped inside Butler Hall when a mob of anti-Israel protesters invaded. REUTERS My friend, fellow veteran and Columbia classmate, Brandon Christie, stopped attending classes in the weeks following Oct. 7, 2023 – and ultimately took his own life. So when Columbia sits by as Veterans Day is hijacked for Martyrs Day and laud groups like Unity of Fields, you start to get the picture. My motivation for going to Ukraine was simple: I've flown drones for the US Air Force, flying a plane remotely somewhere in the Middle East fighting ISIS and al Qaeda. Advertisement 4 Nahins, a Columbia student, said he felt more at ease in Ukraine than New York. Courtesy of Sam Nahins I served overseas in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. But I'd never actually been to a warzone. I needed that perspective. I was getting shelled and attacked by drones while embedded with Ukraine's 25th battalion. But I was in good hands. No one was trying to stab me in the back — at least I knew what the enemy was. Turns out, I felt more at ease in Ukraine than I do in New York. As a grad student at Columbia, where 20-year-olds who have never seen a war in their lives call me 'baby killer,' 'murderer' and 'colonizer,' I feel like my own school and city don't have my back. In Ukraine, people proudly wave American flags. By contrast, at Columbia, we had Martyrs Day on Veterans Day. It's crazy. Advertisement Here in New York, it feels like everyone hates each other. In Ukraine you have a full spectrum of individuals and yet somehow they're all united. We need a lot more of that. In America, we have this feeling of 'Oppression Olympics,' but the Ukrainians in no way want to be pitied. Sure, the people want and need support, but they're not playing the victim game. 4 Nahins alleges he was called a 'baby killer' by fellow students. Courtesy of Sam Nahins Advertisement My experience felt sobering: Ukrainians love America more than Americans. They joke, 'Where is your Iraqi scarf?' They know how ridiculous Columbia is. I'm not giving up on my school or city – and definitely not my country. But I feel very unwanted here. Before I left Ukraine, I put my resume out there, and was offered three jobs for non-military positions. I'm still deciding whether to go back.
New York Post
23-07-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
Columbia must do more to root out hate on campus — starting in the faculty lounge
Columbia University's long-overdue crackdown on the dozens of students who violently took over Butler Library, and the agreement it reached Tuesday with the White House, mark significant if belated steps toward accountability. For nearly two years, these students have occupied campus buildings, spread terrorist propaganda, praised convicted terrorists, posted Nazi-style antisemitic flyers, smashed doors, disrupted classes, harassed Jewish students and openly endorsed 'liberation by any means necessary' — including the Hamas-led Oct. 7 massacre. Backed by Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a coalition of over 90 pro-terror student groups, they have platformed speakers linked to US-designated terrorists, called for the death and expulsion of Jews and Israelis, and urged Hamas to target Jewish Americans. Now they are finally facing consequences. Yet after months of calling for accountability, I take no pleasure in their expulsions and long-term suspensions. Let's be clear: the students who stormed Butler Library got exactly what they deserved. Any functioning society must mete out penalties for those who break the law, and college campuses, which play a central role in shaping young Americans, must uphold that principle. Still, as I watch the surge of anti-Jewish, anti-Israel and anti-American hate rise on campus, I can't help but ask: What if the administration had acted sooner? Could earlier intervention — as I have been calling for since Oct. 12, 2023 — have prevented this descent into terror-glorifying chaos? Could these students — many of whom came to campus with limited knowledge of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — have avoided radicalization if the university had acted earlier? Would it have been spared its current reputation as a hub of antisemitic and anti-American extremism? It shouldn't have taken lawsuits, federal scrutiny and campus-wide chaos for Columbia's leadership to finally do the right thing. But now that the administration finally seems ready to take antisemitism and support for terrorism seriously, the effort mustn't stop with students. If these disciplinary actions are more than just a PR stunt — unlike the quiet reversal of suspensions after the violent Hamilton Hall takeover and the administration's habit of speaking out of both sides of its mouth — then the university must confront the source of the ideology that fueled this movement. Because the truth is these students didn't invent this hatred; they learned it on campus. They were radicalized by Columbia professors who called Oct. 7 a 'military action,' who expressed 'jubilation and awe' at the rape, murder and torture of Israeli civilians and who cheered on their violent takeover of university buildings. Many of them tenured and untouchable, they've long escaped consequences. But if Columbia is genuinely committed to solving this crisis, it must begin by holding faculty members accountable for their role in fueling campus unrest — and addressing the ideology behind their students' actions. Columbia, like many North American universities, has become a breeding ground for what I call 'American Intellectual Antisemitism,' a belief system that casts Jews as white settler-colonialists conspiring to ethnically cleanse Palestinians in an effort to create a Jewish supremacist ethnostate. Unlike the loud, swastika-waving hatred of the far right — with its grotesque and conspiratorial caricatures of Jews as society's omnipotent parasites — academia's insidious form of antisemitism cloaks itself in scholarly jargon and moral pretense. Dressed up in flimsy scholarship and ideological distortions, it rewrites history, ignores archaeological and scholarly records and reframes violence as justice. By manipulating words like 'oppression' and 'decolonialization,' it recasts ancient bigotry into fashionable academic critique — but make no mistake, it is antisemitism all the same. Unless Columbia directly confronts the professors who indoctrinate students into this worldview, its crisis will only deepen. While students like Mahmoud Khalil (who still refuses to condemn Hamas for slaughtering civilians) and Mohsen Madawai (who once led a Fatah student group and praised his cousins in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad) are the public face of this movement, its true architects are the professors. The responsibility — and the blame — rests with them. The surge of illegal pro-Hamas encampments on American campuses last year revealed that, left unchecked, campus unrest can quickly escalate into a national crisis. The question now is not only what actions Columbia will take to pull this bigotry out by its roots, but whether other universities will learn from its grievous mistakes. At a time when antisemitism and support for terrorism are reaching record highs, one thing remains crystal clear: What begins in the faculty lounge doesn't always stop at the campus gates. It's time to confront the academic machinery that fuels this hatred and dismantle it at the source. Shai Davidai is an activist, podcaster and former professor at Columbia University who is currently writing a book on American Intellectual Antisemitism.
Washington Post
23-07-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Nearing a deal with Trump, Columbia expels and suspends student protesters
Columbia University disciplined more than 70 students for participating in a May protest of the Israeli government's actions in Gaza, the school said Tuesday, days after university officials hoping to cut a deal with the Trump administration to restore federal funding attended a meeting at the White House. The university suspended or expelled more than two-thirds of the students sanctioned in connection with a demonstration at the university's Butler Library, according to university spokeswoman Millie Wert. Some will have their degrees revoked, while others were put on probation.
Hindustan Times
23-07-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Columbia suspends, expels 80 students for participating in Gaza protests, university says ‘such violations will…'
Columbia University has taken strong action against students who joined protests against Israel's war in Gaza. The school has expelled some students, suspended others, and even revoked academic degrees. Columbia University has expelled some students, suspended others, and even revoked academic degrees.(AP) According to the student group Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), around 80 students have now been punished. Some were expelled, and others were suspended for as long as three years. CUAD has been calling on Columbia to cut all financial ties with Israel, according to Al Jazeera report. Also Read: Israeli forces open fire on hundreds of starving Palestinians waiting for aid in Gaza, hospitals say; 25 dead Punished for protests at Butler Library In a statement on Tuesday, Columbia said the latest punishments are related to protests at Butler Library in May 2025 and an encampment during Alumni Weekend in spring 2024. The university said, 'Disruptions to academic activities are in violation of University policies and rules, and such violations will necessarily generate consequences.' CUAD said Columbia's actions go far beyond what's been done in past campus protests. The group said, 'We will not be deterred. We are committed to the struggle for Palestinian liberation.' Student encampments at Columbia in 2024 drew national and global attention. The protests were eventually shut down after the university let hundreds of NYPD officers onto campus, leading to many arrests. Despite that, student protesters took over Butler Library again during final exams in May. They called for the university to stop investing in companies tied to the Israeli military and showed support for Palestinians in Gaza. Columbia's Judicial Board said expulsions, suspensions, and revoked degrees were handed out for disrupting the campus during that time. The university didn't say how many were expelled but said this was 'the final set of findings from that period.' Columbia is also trying to get back $400 million in federal funding. The Trump administration cut the funds, saying the university didn't do enough to protect Jewish students from harassment. Claire Shipman, Columbia's acting president and a former trustee, was booed by students during the May graduation ceremony because of her role in punishing the pro-Palestinian protests. Also Read: History sheeter charged with arson for setting NYC police vehicles on fire at Pro-Palestinian protests Harvard University also faced threats of funding cuts Meanwhile, Harvard University, which also faced threats of funding cuts, has taken the Trump administration to court over it. The disciplinary actions at Columbia came the same day reports from Gaza said at least 15 people, including a six-week-old baby, died from hunger and malnutrition in a single day, according to local health officials. Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia protest leader who was detained by immigration officials, met with lawmakers in Washington, DC, on Tuesday. He had recently been released from a Louisiana detention center. The Trump administration has said it plans to deport pro-Palestinian activists.
UPI
23-07-2025
- Politics
- UPI
Columbia disciplines dozens of pro-Palestine protesters
Pro Palestine protesters are arrested by NYPD Police officers on the campus of Columbia University on Wednesday, May 7, 2025, in New York City. Arrests were underway late Wednesday after about 100 pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia University took over the campus' Butler Library just days before final exams. File Photo by Derek French/UPI | License Photo July 23 (UPI) -- Columbia University has disciplined dozens of pro-Palestine protesters amid pressure from the Trump administration, which has targeted the school amid its crackdown on left-leaning ideology. In a statement Tuesday, the school said the unspecified sanctions were administered after its University Judicial Board determined they were warranted concerning the disruption of Butler Library in May and the Spring 2024 encampment during Alumni Weekend. The number of students punished was not mentioned, but sources told CNN that it was more than 70. "While the University does not release individual disciplinary results of any student, the sanctions from Butler Library included probation, suspensions (ranging from one year to three years), degree revocations and expulsions," Columbia said in a statement. The announcement comes as the school faces pressure from the Trump administration, which has targeted universities -- in particular elite schools -- over left-leaning activism it describes as anti-Israel and anti-Semitic and diversity, equity and inclusion policies. The Trump administration has claimed protests that erupted across campuses nationwide demonstrating against Israel's war in Gaza were violent and anti-Semitic, and has used them to punish those institutions. At Columbia, pro-Palestine protesters on May 7 disrupted a portion of Butler, occupying rooms there and vandalizing property, resulting in two public safety officers sustaining injuries. In March, the Trump administration canceled some $400 million in federal grants and contracts to the university "due to the school's continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students." Columbia has said the halt in funding forced it to lay off 180 researchers. Columbia said since March it has responded to the Trump administration by instituting what it has called structural reforms and other improvements. "Our institution must focus on delivering on its academic mission for our community," Columbia said in the Tuesday statement. "And to create a thriving academic community, there must be respect for each other and the institution's fundamental work, policies and rules. Disruptions to academic activities are in violation of University policy and Rules, and such violations will necessarily generate consequences." Since returning to power in January, President Donald Trump has used his executive powers to go after the United States universities, in particular its Ivy League schools. In April, he signed an executive order to reform the university accreditation system to penalize those that employ DEI policies. Harvard University has taken the Trump administration to court over the president's freezing of more than $2.4 billion in what the school said was a pressure campaign "to force Harvard to submit to the government's control over its academic programs." This month, it has launched four federal investigations into George Mason University over its alleged DEI policies. The New York Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations lambasted Columbia on Tuesday for its "grotesquely oppressive" decision to mass-punish its students. "The students sat in unity to urge ending complicity in an active genocide. Columbia, seemingly bowing to political pressure from the Trump administration, has done more than undermine free speech and higher education. The University has sold its morality, academic integrity and commitment to students," CAIR-NY executive Director Afaf Nasher said in a statement.
