Columbia’s move to clean up protesters from campus buildings last spring from last spring may be avoided, according to a report released by the university’s Senate on Tuesday, as some students were eager to say whether they could leave voluntarily.
Early that morning, students broke into Hamilton Hall and blocked the door, and they told the teacher agency that they invited Pastor Harlem’s help to help them leave safely. But university administrators said the time had run out and allowed hundreds of police officers to come to campus and evacuate protesters from the buildings.
New details of the last hours of Hamilton Hall occupying the last few hours on April 30 were one of the main revelations of the 335-page report, written by a group within the Senate, including faculty, students and administrators, along with the majority-based Colombian policy-making agency. The Senate is independent of the government and criticizes its protest response.
It is known as the “San Dial Report” and it provides a sequel to the events surrounding the protests related to the Gaza war began in October 2023.
The demonstrations and Colombia’s response have made the school a hub for a national debate on how to protect students from harassment by demonstrators, while also protecting protesters’ freedom of speech and rights.
The events last spring caused severe damage to the university’s Highland campus in the morning, and some critics in Colombia say administrators have waited too long to take action. The turmoil climaxed on April 30, when a group of smaller protesters, including some who were not associated with Colombia, broke into the tent camp and took over Hamilton Hall.
The report released on Tuesday represents the latest debate over the year-long demonstrations and Colombia’s handling of them. Although many faculty and students stand in the right to peaceful protest, some groups believe the demonstrations are full of anti-Semitism and threats to Jewish students.
The report believes the university made a major mistake.
“The main purpose of this report is to understand how instability can be introduced into the daily life of a university and to do the right thing,” the report said.
This is because Columbia protests with the Trump administration, cutting about $400 million in federal research money because the Columbia Columbia Bureau has not done enough to combat anti-Semitism and the university has promised other steps to control the protests. In the midst of turmoil, the school was in office in less than a year.
A university spokesman said officials did not see the report before it was released on Tuesday night and are reviewing it. Colombian leaders repeatedly defended protests over the past year and a half, including their decision to evacuate the New York Police Department from campus on the night of the acquisition. During the subsequent arrest, police accidentally released the gun despite no injuries.
“Students and outside activists break the doors of Hamilton Hall, abuse of our public safety officials and maintenance personnel, and property damage is acts of vandalism, not political speech,” former Colombia’s former president Nemat Shafik said in a statement to the community on May 1.
The report did not disclose who was involved in the 111-member Senate in its creation, although the Senate website noted that the effort was led by Senate Executive Committee Chairman Jeanine D’Armiento.
“People are concerned about the Doxxing happening and voted in the executive committee for not giving any name,” Dr. D’Armiento said in an interview, also consulting other faculty members outside the Senate.
Dr. D’Ariento himself emerged as a report of a key intermediary in negotiations between protesters and managers. “The report was written by people who participated in the Senate,” said James Applegate, a Columbian astronomer and member of the Senate Executive Committee.
The report concluded that the university government has repeatedly failed to address the concerns of pro-Palestinian protesters, but rather doubted them.
It also said that last spring, police operations on the Columbia campus continued the proud tradition of student-led political protests over the previous half-century. In 1968, protests in Colombia largely opposed the Vietnam War sparked an aggressive police response. A group known as the Cox Commission, led by Harvard professor Archibald Cox and later Watergate Special Attorney Archibald Cox, criticized the school’s response, leading to the expansion of university’s faculty and staff.
“There is no time in the fifties and a half years of age from 1968 to 2024 that the integrity of the university has been so weakened that the university government has called on nearly 600 armed police to station on campus to calm a protest against unarmed students,” the report said.
The university’s Senate said it envisions a collaborative investigation led by independent outside figures, similar to Mr. Cox. Despite initially assisting the report, the university refused to attend.
The only senior leader who agreed to answer the questions was Dr. Shafik, who resigned in August after her confidence in her leadership was severely damaged, the report said.
The government decided to convene police on the recommendation of the Senate Executive Committee and made special criticism in the report.
“The guardrails that protect these key university functions have been beaten and in some cases violated,” the report said. “The result is disorientation and alienation.”
It also accuses schools of hiring private investigators to monitor students and observe teachers and attempts to ask students in their apartments without due process, which exacerbates the “increasingly severe atmosphere of intimidation.”
Columbia’s chief operating officer Cas Holloway confirmed the university has recruited an external security company, the report said.
The report provides details about one of the most important moments in the demonstrations, the profession of Hamilton Hall and the clearance of the interior. This suggests that the decision to call police to remove protesters could be avoided, which could avoid police officers around campus buildings and climb through windows.
The report said that around 7:20 p.m., before police arrived, representatives of the protesters contacted Senate members to ask whether students could leave the building without police entering. Dr. D’Arimiento called Dr. Shafik at 7:49 pm to convey that message.
“Call them at 8:15 pm and tell them there is still half an hour left,” the report said.
The report said that as the police helicopters hovered, Dr. D’Ariento contacted Dr. Shafik again at 8:03 but received no response.
The students also said Pastor Harlem, who contacted Mayor Eric Adams’ office, provided assistance to them, without police officers “helping them get out of Hamilton.”
The report said that at 8:31 pm, Dr. D’Armiento asked Dr. Shafik to work with the students for another 30 minutes. “I know many students want this deal and they are trying to get others on board,” she wrote in an email.
Dr. Shafik replied after 35 minutes: “The best thing is if they leave alone now. Encourage them to do so for everyone’s sake.” Twenty minutes later, at 9:26 pm, police entered the building and arrested dozens of people.
