After a day of protest and confusion on its Manhattan campus, Columbia University announced Monday evening that it had begun to suspend students who had not left a pro-Palestinian encampment by a 2 p.m. deadline.

The measure reflected the difficult balance Columbia administrators are seeking to strike as they try to avoid bringing the Police Department back to arrest those in the encampment, but also commit to the stance that the protest must end.

Students in the encampment, along with hundreds of supporters, had spent a tense afternoon rallying around the site in a show of force meant to deter the removal of its tents. But by 4 p.m., with no sign of police action, most of the protesters had begun to disperse, leaving only what appeared to be several dozen students and about 80 tents inside the encampment.

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  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    You can tell how much universities today care about their student body.

    I wonder what would happen if students stopped registering for classes next fall?

    • AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net
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      6 months ago

      Universities under neoliberalism remind me of the adage about online stuff: “if you’re not paying for a service, you’re the product, not the customer”. Except of course, at university, we do pay — quite a lot, in some countries. Even being customers is bad in this context though, because the over-businessification of universities is a huge problem, in my view. <Shakes fist at Thatcher and Reagan>

      The primary product of universities nowadays is metrics, which is why the ratio of bureaucrats to teaching staff has shifted so much over the last couple decades.

    • fartington@lemm.ee
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      6 months ago

      I wonder what would happen if students stopped registering for classes next fall?

      We will pass a bill to bail out the schools.

  • girlfreddy@lemmy.ca
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    6 months ago

    If an educational institution won’t abid by the First Amendment it means they’re more interested in pumping out cogs for the machines of capitalism than they are teaching students critical thinking skills.

    Fuck Columbia and every other school that follows this path.

    • DoomBot5@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Go read up about what the first amendment actually is and how it applies to private entities (hint: it doesn’t).

      • Tryptaminev@lemm.ee
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        6 months ago

        There is a difference from having to uphold a constitutional right by law or by principle of valuing the right.

        Free speech is essential for universities as it creates the space in which scientific discourse and development can strife. This is also why autocratic governments always crack down on universities and then within a few years the quality of research and teaching goes down the drain.

        By cracking down on students that were voicing their opinion Columbia declares that it does not want to be an university in that spirit anymore. It might not be a legal problem. But it is a complete moral failure.

        • Jarix@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          “an university” this is worse than nails on a chalkboard or the word “moist”

        • DoomBot5@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          W safety of some students cannot be comprised by granting other students their freedom.

          • Tryptaminev@lemm.ee
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            6 months ago

            On all the Universities were police was brought it, it escalated the situation. We saw evidence of a pro-Israel protestor committing to antisemitic hate speech in order to get the police to violently crackdown on the peaceful anti-genocide protest.

            Meanwhile Jewish students and members of faculty from most campuses report that there was not threat towards them by the anti-genocide demonstrations

            • DoomBot5@lemmy.world
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              6 months ago

              Bad timing on your end. The Colombia protestors just raided one of the halls and barricaded themselves in.

              Tents on a lawn is one thing, even if they did nothing to silence the calls for hate among their ranks. Breaking (in the literal sense) into a building and causing damage is a whole level of escalation from the protestors. At what point do they shift into a violent riot?

              • Tryptaminev@lemm.ee
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                6 months ago

                So after police came in and violated people things escalated. You are confirming what i said.

                • DoomBot5@lemmy.world
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                  6 months ago

                  Nah, you have it backwards. The protestors broke into a building, so police was sent to get them out. It would be the same outcome as if you decided to break into a building and lock yourself in.

        • SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          Was that the university that private the YouTube video saying protests were allowed on campus or was that another one?

          Either way, universities love to pretend they’re bastions of activism until they actually have to be about it.

  • Chickenstalker@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Such a protest is unthinkable merely 5 years ago. Both the Left and the Right hates Israel. The latter only pretends to like Israel because they think it will accelerate The Rapture. As if you can force God to do something. Blasphemy.