The University Judicial Board of Columbia University announced the issuance of sanctions for individuals involved in the pro-Palestinian protests in Butler Library in May 2025 and the encampment during Alumni Weekend in spring 2024.
In May, Columbia’s pro-Palestinian groups staged a “teach-in” demonstration in the main campus library, leading it to be shut down. The 100 protesters renamed the room “the Basel Al-Araj Popular University,” in honor of a “freedom fighter” by the same name “who Israel murdered in an extrajudicial assassination in 2017.” The IDF said Araj was suspected of planning terrorist attacks.
In a statement at the time, the university said, “The disruption at Butler Library during reading period affected hundreds of students attempting to study.” The university immediately began an investigation into the individuals and placed 65 participants on interim suspension. This meant they were prohibited from taking their final exams or entering campus except to access their dormitories.
While the university’s policy is not to release individual disciplinary results of any student, it confirmed on July 21 that the final sanctions from Butler Library include probation, suspensions (ranging from one year to three years), degree revocations, and expulsions.
On July 22, Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) announced that around 80 students had been informed that they are suspended for one to three years or expelled for their involvement in the Butler Library protest.
CUAD accused Columbia’s then-acting president and Board of Trustees co-chair Claire Shipman of collaborating with the Trump administration to illegally restructure the university Judicial Board (UJB), and removed student members and faculty oversight to “pursue exceptionally harsh sanctions against its own students.”
Columbia did remove students from the UJB in June. The Trump administration sent Columbia a list of demands in March, calling on it to abolish the University Judicial Board and relocate the cases to Columbia’s Office of the President. Columbia partially complied, announcing that it would not abolish the board entirely, but that it would remove students from the UJB and relocate it under the Office of the Provost.
In a separate statement on July 24, CUAD said “the federal government and Columbia’s Board of Trustees [...] give each other cover to try to crush opposition to genocide without taking responsibility for authoritarian actions.
“Columbia did not ‘capitulate’ to the Trump administration – it colluded without an ounce of hesitation.”
UJB also announced last week that it had completed its disciplinary hearings for the May 31, 2024, “Revolt for Rafah” encampment, in which pro-Palestinian protesters occupied part of the campus during the university’s annual alumni weekend.
A university spokesperson, however, told the Columbia Spectator that they could not provide additional information about the “Revolt for Rafah” encampment disciplinary process.
Columbia janitors settle in anti-Israel assault case
Separately, two Columbia janitors who claimed they were held hostage during a pro-Palestinian protest in April 2024 have reached a settlement agreement with the university.
The janitors – Mario Torres and Lester Wilson – filed a complaint against the university with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over civil rights violations and the failure to protect them during the occupation of Hamilton Hall by pro-Palestinian students.
The complaint has been settled for an undisclosed amount, American media outlets reported.
The two janitors also brought a lawsuit against the 40 protesters they claim held them hostage and who committed battery, assault, and conspiracy to violate their civil rights.
The lawsuit, filed by Torridon Law and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, alleged that over 40 Columbia students and “outside agitators” “terrorized” both men “into the early morning of April 30, assaulted and battered them, held them against their will, and derided them as ‘Jew-lovers’ and ‘Zionists.’”
Both men have since claimed to suffer from PTSD.
“The whole idea of this case was to go after and to hold accountable those organizations and individuals who were actually responsible for planning, coordinating, and carrying out the takeover of Hamilton Hall and the assault of these janitors,” Lewin told JNS.
The lawsuit is ongoing.