Columbia President Nemat Shafik said the encampment “severely disrupts campus life.”
Topline
Police officers cleared out an encampment of students protesting Israel’s war in Gaza on Columbia University’s campus on Thursday and took students into custody, the New York Police Department said, as the university cracks down on the massive protest that broke out the same day President Nemat Shafik testified before Congress on campus antisemitism.Key Facts
NYPD officers in riot gear began clearing the encampment shortly after 1 p.m., the New York Times reported, with officers reportedly placing nearly all the students at the encampment in zip ties and loading them onto buses.
Protesters are currently being taken into custody and no charges have been filed yet, the NYPD told Forbes, noting police do not currently know how many students have been detained.
“The current campus encampment violates all of the new policies, severely disrupts campus life, and creates a harassing and intimidating environment for many of our students,” Shafik wrote in an email to students on Thursday, but also said “these are steps I deeply regret having to take.
