Columbia University’s Secret Disciplinary Process for Students Critical of Israel

 

As Trump threatens sweeping action against “illegal protest” on college campuses, Columbia is already using secret processes to punish pro-Palestine students

In the wake of student protests last year over U.S. support for the Israeli war in Gaza, Columbia University has launched secret investigations into students for pro-Palestinian activity on campuses, including engaging in public protests or sharing material that characterizes Israel’s actions as genocide or apartheid—or even calls for halting U.S. arms sales to Israel.

Columbia’s campaign to suppress campus activism uses provisions from the Civil Rights Act—which the school interprets expansively to characterize criticism of Israel as “discriminatory harassment.” The operation is run out of a recently created office of the university called the Office of Institutional Equity (OIE), which the school has created to oversee, “the review and arbitration of all reports of discrimination and discriminatory harassment at Columbia." That office is empowered to investigate students and faculty using an opaque administrative process that can punish those found guilty of discrimination with disciplinary notifications, suspensions, loss of housing, expulsions, and even the revocation of diplomas for graduates.

Dozens of students have been targeted by the OIE over their activism on campus in recent months. Drop Site spoke to several who are currently under investigation by the office. The students said that they received notices informing them that they were under investigation, following complaints that can be submitted anonymously via a form on the OIE website. After a student receives notification they are under investigation for discrimination based on their speech, Columbia requires them to sign a non-disclosure agreement in order to see the unredacted evidence against them—effectively banning them from discussing the accusations against them or the process of the office publicly. Columbia University did not respond to a request for comment.

In a September 2024 message from Columbia’s interim president Katrina Armstrong, the OIE was introduced to students and faculty as “a centralized resource for addressing reports of discrimination and harassment and to ensure that cases are handled fairly and expeditiously.” In practice, students at Columbia and legal advisors working on disciplinary investigations say that the office’s focus has been overwhelmingly on targeting speech critical of Israel on campus.  (more...)

Columbia University’s Secret Disciplinary Process for Students Critical of Israel