When student protesters took over a building at Columbia University in April, the school said they would "face expulsion." Now, with one week to go until the start of the fall semester, Columbia will allow most of those students to return to classes in good standing.
Of the 22 students arrested inside Hamilton Hall, an academic building on Columbia’s Morningside Heights campus, just four have faced any kind of disciplinary action, according to a Monday press release from the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. The other 18 remain in good standing with the university and will be allowed back on campus while their disciplinary hearings progress.
An additional 31 students who participated in the school’s encampment have had their suspensions reversed. Three others are still barred from campus and a fourth has been placed on probation. It is not clear whether those students are the same four who were sanctioned for occupying Hamilton Hall, which sustained serious property damage and was not cleared until the police were called.
As of this month, not a single student has been expelled.
"The failure of Columbia’s invertebrate administration to hold accountable students who violate university rules and break the law is disgraceful and unacceptable," Virginia Foxx (R., N.C.), the chair of the House committee, said in the press release. "By allowing its own disciplinary process to be thwarted by radical students and faculty, Columbia has waved the white flag in surrender while offering up a get-out-of-jail-free card to those who participated in these unlawful actions."
Columbia declined to say whether expulsion remains a possibility for any students. A university spokesman said that the "disciplinary process is ongoing" and that the school was "working to expedite the process for this large volume of violations."
News of the about-face comes days after the Washington Free Beacon reported that two professors on Columbia’s top disciplinary committee, Joseph Slaughter and Susan Bernofsky, participated in the April encampment.
Their role has raised concerns about conflicts of interest as the university braces for another round of protests this fall. Jacob Fish, a professor in Columbia’s school of engineering, predicted that there would be "plenty of disruption," adding that Slaughter and Bernofsky should not be giving "any kind of advice to the administration," while Elliot Glassman, an adjunct professor at Columbia’s school of architecture, compared them to "wolves guarding the henhouse."
Columbia has declined to say whether Slaughter or Bernofsky will be removed from the committee. Neither has publicly addressed their participation in the encampment.
The university is now struggling to get a handle on its recalcitrant faculty, which has successfully delayed the disciplinary hearings of many students who occupied Hamilton Hall. Former Columbia president Minouche Shafik resigned last week after losing a vote of no confidence in the faculty senate in May, and her replacement, Columbia Medical School dean Katrina Armstrong, has already signaled that she is eager to reach a détente.
"You are the ultimate keepers of the institution’s values and the stewards of its long and proud history," Armstrong told the Columbia faculty in an email last week. "My leadership of Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC) has been grounded in consistent engagement with the entire faculty across all four schools, and that will again be the case during my time as your Interim University President."
While students have largely escaped consequences for their actions, administrators at Columbia have not been so lucky. Three high-level deans—Susan Chang-Kim, Cristen Kromm, and Matthew Patashnick—resigned this month after the Free Beacon published derisive text messages they exchanged during a May panel on campus anti-Semitism. A fourth participant in the exchange, Columbia College dean Josef Sorett, was allowed to remain in his post.
The panel took place hours before 32 students set up a second encampment on the university’s lawn, disrupting events planned for alumni weekend and drawing fresh scrutiny to the scandal-ridden Ivy. "We’re back bitches," one sign at the protest declared.
Columbia told the House committee that all of those students remain in good standing. Their disciplinary hearings, the school said, "will move forward in August, pending any further delays."