President Trump’s administration should yank federal funding from Columbia University and Barnard College, advocates urged Thursday – arguing the elite Manhattan schools have not done enough to protect Jewish students, including during disruptive and at times violent campus protests.
In addition to pulling funding, advocacy group StopAntisemitism called for the Justice Department to take action to curtail future campus disruptions, including by launching an investigation into the Students for Justice in Palestine organization.
“The university administration has completely failed to protect Jewish and Israeli students, faculty, and staff, allowing a hostile and dangerous environment to fester unchecked,” StopAntisemitism’s executive director, Liora Rez, wrote in a letter to Leo Terrell, who is helming the Trump admin’s new task force to combat antisemitism.
Columbia received some $1.3 billion in federal grants in 2024 alone, accounting for around 20% of its operating budget, according to the Columbia Daily Spectator, the Ivy League university’s student newspaper.
The letter also calls on the DOJ to revoke visas and deport foreign students engaged in violent protests on campus, and hold school administrators accountable for allowing the “lawlessness” to continue.
The plea followed an SJP-organized protest at Barnard’s Milbank Hall Wednesday, in which a school security guard was assaulted, officials said.
An unruly mob of anti-Israel protesters took over the college building hall to protest the expulsion of a pair of masked students who stormed a Columbia class on modern Israel in January and tossed around antisemitic leaflets.
By Thursday afternoon, the protests reignited, with around 100 anti-Israel demonstrators gathering in front of the entrance to Barnard, once again clad in masks and keffiyehs and chanting “free Palestine” and “one solution, intifada revolution” while calling out the $66,000-per-year private college with slogans like “your hands are dirty” and “you support genocide.”
A group of Jewish students stood nearby, displaying Israel flags as a counter-protest.
“I think it’s absolutely horrifying. They are chanting in Arabic, ‘from water to water Palestine will be Arab.’ They are not calling for peace and compassion and human rights. They are calling for violence,” Joshua Shain, 21, a Columbia junior told The Post.
“These are not the values of the great institution of Columbia. These are not American values.”
Shain said Columbia was handling the protests better than it did last year’s major unrest — but that more still needed to be done.
“We’re paying all this money in tuition, not to mention the federal and city taxes. The college and the city are supposed to make sure that everyone is safe. Where is that money going? They [protesters] put a man in the hospital for trying to keep order. What is being done?” he said.
“I don’t think any Jewish students are safe.”
Barnard freshman Eliana Birman, who is Jewish, said she used to walk around campus with “my head held high,” proudly wearing her Star of David necklace and dog tags. But due to the prolonged unrest, she now feels “very anxious” about such harmless displays.
“I kind of just want to be able to get back to a point where I’m able to be myself without being afraid,” she said.
“I came to Barnard because everyone has such strong opinions and everyone feels comfortable using their voice, but it’s gotten to a point where people are scared to speak up and people have to hide what they think and what they feel and and who they are for the sake of being safe,” she continued.
“I don’t think that that’s a productive learning environment for anybody.”
During Wednesday’s occupation, law enforcement sources said around 20 students pushed a 41-year-old campus security officer to the ground as they barged into the historic academic building. The victim was transported to nearby Mount Sinai Morningside hospital, complaining of chest pains.
The Transport Workers Union, which represents the injured officer, said he was “pinned” by the rushing crowd against a beam, and that one protester “lowered his shoulder and slammed into [him] like a linebacker.”
“In the eyes of some of these trust-fund baby ideologues, harming the blue-collar TWU workforce at Barnard is seen as acceptable collateral damage in their quest to advance their political cause,” TWU International President John Samuelsen said in the statement, calling for the culprits to be investigated and prosecuted.
Despite vowing to continue protesting until their demands were met — which included reinstating the expelled students and “amnesty” for those involved in last summer’s widespread campus protests — the mass of students left Milbank Hall just before 10:40 p.m. Wednesday.
“The masked protesters left Milbank Hall after receiving final written notice and being informed that Barnard would be forced to consider additional necessary measures to protect the campus if they did not leave on their own,” Barnard College’s vice president for strategic communications Robin Levine said in a statement Thursday morning.
“No promises of amnesty were made, and no concessions were negotiated,” Levine said of the resolution of the previous night’s fracas.
The crowd marched to nearby Riverside Park — before returning to the front gates of the school Thursday to continue their efforts.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE, a nonprofit that advocates for free speech on college campuses nationwide, said in a statement that the Milbank takeover was anything but.
“What happened at Barnard last night was, by all accounts, not peaceful protest. Campuses need to draw a hard line: full support for peaceful student protest on even the most divisive political issues, and zero tolerance for misconduct, violence, or criminality,” the statement from Vice President Alex Morey read in part.
“The buck stops with administrators. Barnard needs to educate students on these basic distinctions and be clear-eyed when it’s time to enforce rules that keep speakers safe on campus.”
Columbia, Barnard and the DOJ didn’t return requests for comment Thursday.
– Additional reporting by Joe Marino
