White House praises Columbia’s response after 80 arrested in pro-Palestinian protest at campus library
By Dalia Faheid, Omar Jimenez, Jillian Sykes, Betsy Klein, CNN
(CNN) — The Trump administration said Thursday it was “encouraged” by Columbia University’s response to a pro-Palestinian protest at the main campus library Wednesday where police took 80 people into custody.
Columbia University officials asked the NYPD to help secure Butler Library Wednesday night, after protesters’ actions caused “substantial chaos” and “posed a serious risk to our students and campus safety,” acting university President Claire Shipman said in a statement Wednesday. The university also deployed “special patrol officers” with the power to arrest and remove students as part of its response to the demonstration, according to a university official.
Shipman said she spent the late afternoon and evening at Butler Library and “arrived to see one of our Public Safety officers wheeled out on a gurney and another getting bandaged.”
“As I left hours later, I walked through the reading room, one of the many jewels of Butler Library, and I saw it defaced and damaged in disturbing ways and with disturbing slogans,” she said in her statement, without elaborating on the extent of the damage.
The large demonstration, and the administration’s praise of Shipman, came as universities, including Columbia, face the threat of funding cuts from the Trump administration, which has canceled hundreds of international student visas following the wave of protests against Israel’s war in Gaza that swept campuses last year.
The Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, which was created following a February executive order from President Donald Trump, applauded Shipman’s statement as “strong and resolute,” saying she “has stepped in to lead Columbia at a critical juncture and has met the moment with fortitude and conviction.”
“We concur with Acting President Shipman that what happened was utterly unacceptable, which is precisely why the American people are demanding that the administration act to implement meaningful and enforceable commitments to enforce civil rights laws with institutions that receive taxpayer dollars,” the statement continued.
Meanwhile, advocacy groups including the New York Civil Liberties Union and the Council on American-Islamic Relations criticized Columbia’s decision to call in the NYPD, saying the university’s swift response was intended to appease the Trump administration as it cracks down on pro-Palestine activists.
In regards to Wednesday’s demonstration, police said 80 people “who did not comply with verbal warnings by the NYPD to disperse” were taken into custody. Of those taken into custody, 78 were arrested and two others were issued summonses, per the NYPD.
It’s not clear, however, how many of those people came from the protest inside the library building.
Charges are pending against the individuals, the NYPD previously said. It’s unclear what charges they may face. CNN has reached out to the NYPD for further details.
As of Thursday evening, more than 65 Columbia students were on interim suspension pending further investigation, a university official told CNN. And 33 people from affiliated institutions along with alumni participants have been barred from the Columbia campus, the official said.
Video from inside the library earlier Wednesday shows public safety officers confronting protesters, who were being blocked and pushed from the library doors as some yell, “let them out!” “Stop! You’re hurting me!” one protester is heard shouting.
In one video, at least one public safety officer bent an individual over what appears to be a desk, handcuffing them. Another person assisting with the detainment approached the person recording the video, saying “Back up!”
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said on X around 7 p.m. ET that “NYPD is entering the campus to remove individuals who are trespassing.”
“At the direct request of Columbia University, the NYPD responded to an ongoing situation on campus where individuals have occupied a library and are trespassing,” an NYPD spokesperson said in a statement to CNN. “Multiple individuals who did not comply with verbal warnings by the NYPD to disperse were taken into custody.”
Videos from the scene showed officers escorting a group of protesters from the building in zip ties and taking them to an NYPD bus down the block. Officers with crowd control gear, including riot helmets and batons, are seen as the crowd chants “Free Palestine.”
Protesters – who are asking for the university to divest from companies that have ties to Israel – called for the library to be renamed the “Basel Al-Araj Popular University,” according to a Substack post from Columbia University Apartheid Divest. Al-Araj, a Palestinian activist, was killed in an Israeli raid in 2017.
“The flood shows that as long as Columbia funds and profits from imperialist violence, the people will continue to disrupt Columbia’s profits and legitimacy,” the group said.
It’s unclear whether all the demonstrators at the library Wednesday are affiliated with the group. CNN has reached out to the student organization for more information.
The demonstration comes about a year after pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia University initiated a wave of demonstrations at college campuses across the country that culminated in encampments and mass arrests. Protesters in 2024 barricaded inside Hamilton Hall, calling for it to be renamed “Hind’s Hall,” after a 5-year-old girl who was killed by Israeli tank fire while in her family’s car in Gaza.
It also came the same day that the House Education and Workforce Committee questioned three university presidents on antisemitism – reminiscent of a similar congressional hearing in April 2024 when former Columbia President Nemat “Minouche” Shafik testified.
Officers repeatedly asked demonstrators to identify themselves and leave the building, though none agreed to do so, Shipman said. The demonstrators were told they would be in violation of university rules and face possible arrest for trespassing if they didn’t identify themselves and disperse, Shipman added. Individuals not involved in the protest were able to exit the library, the university said.
“While this is isolated to one room in the library, it is completely unacceptable that some individuals are choosing to disrupt academic activities as our students are studying and preparing for final exams,” the university said. “These disruptions of our campus and academic activities will not be tolerated.”
The university has stated that those found in violation of university rules and policies “will face disciplinary consequences.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she has been briefed on the situation and is “grateful to public safety officials for keeping students safe.”
On Wednesday night, Secretary of State Marco Rubio called protesters’ immigration statuses into question, saying: “We are reviewing the visa status of the trespassers and vandals who took over Columbia University’s library.” It’s unclear whether any of the protesters are international students. CNN has reached out to the State Department for more information.
Butler Library re-opened Thursday, Shipman announced in a statement. This includes the reading room, the focal point of much of Wednesday’s demonstrations, which has been “restored” and is ready for use, Shipman said.
Just ahead of finals beginning on campus, Shipman described this a “crucial academic moment for students” and that “Butler will, as is usual, remain open overnight this evening, and we will have normal operations across all other libraries today.”
Columbia deployed officers with ‘enhanced training and legal authority’
Columbia University on Wednesday deployed public safety officers who have “enhanced training and legal authority” aimed at reducing “reliance on the NYPD,” according to the university. This marks at least the second time the officers were deployed to an on-campus protest since Columbia University shared initial details on these officers in late March, a university official confirmed.
As part of the March announcement, the university shared it had hired “36 special officers who will have the ability to remove individuals from campus and/or arrest them.” This came a day after the Trump administration’s deadline to the university to implement a number of enhanced enforcement actions, including to “empower internal law enforcement” with the power of “arrest and removal,” or potentially face a pause or termination of federal funding.
A later announcement from the university said these officers were added as part of the university’s approach to managing protests and demonstrations more effectively and they have the authority “to make arrests when necessary, based on violations of applicable law.” Additionally, the university said these officers will “not be armed and will be distinguishable from our regular Public Safety team by a patch and badge.”
It’s unclear how many of the 36 hired were used in Wednesday’s protest response, but notes provided to CNN by a student government leader who took part in a recent Inclusive Public Safety Advisory Committee meeting show there were at least 25 available as of late last week. The notes say these officers “are not intended to arrest students” but may issue “summonses for non-compliance with university rules,” or even “temporarily” detain students before potentially being transferred to a nearby police precinct.
Wednesday’s police response shows that Columbia “cares more about appeasing the insatiable Trump administration than the well-being of its students,” New York Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Donna Lieberman said Thursday.
“Columbia’s snap decision to call the country’s largest police force on their own students is dangerous, especially now, as the federal government seizes every opportunity it can to punish and deport pro-Palestine protesters,” Lieberman said. “With the Trump administration breathing down its neck, Columbia is acting like a tool of the president. The school didn’t even allow a hint of negotiation with students.”
The New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said the university’s response was a violation of protesters’ free speech rights.
“Suppressing peaceful protests, like sit-ins at the library aimed at ending complicity in the ongoing massacres of Palestinians, is immoral and flaunts the erosion of civil liberties in our country,” Afaf Nasher, the chapter’s executive director, said. “Students should not have to risk their livelihoods to speak out against injustice.”
Pressure from the Trump administration mounts
Numerous college campuses – including Columbia – have in recent months been under intense pressure from the Trump administration after it threatened their funding if they don’t comply with his policy demands and revoked hundreds of student visas as part of a vast immigration crackdown.
In March, the administration said it was canceling $400 million worth of grants and contracts to Columbia University because of what it considers the school’s failure to quash antisemitism on campus. The administration demanded several changes, including the university enforce its disciplinary policies, implement rules for protests, ban masks, announce a plan to hold student groups accountable, empower its law enforcement and review its Middle East studies programs.
Columbia University in March then announced a series of new policies, including restrictions on demonstrations.
Students involved in demonstrations against Israel’s war in Gaza were also targeted by the administration. International Columbia University students Mohsen Mahdawi and Mahmoud Khalil, both of whom were involved in last spring’s protests, were detained by the administration as it threatened to deport them.
Mahdawi was hoping to begin the final step to becoming a US citizen when he was taken away in handcuffs last month. The lawful permanent resident has been an outspoken critic of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and organized Columbia campus protests until March 2024. Mahdawi was recently released on bond.
Khalil, a lawful permanent resident who co-founded the Palestinian Student Union at Columbia with Mahdawi, was one of the lead negotiators at last year’s pro-Palestinian demonstrations at the university. He faces deportation after being detained in March.
University officials in April warned against a repeat of encampments seen on campus last year. “We want to clearly communicate that camping and encampments on Columbia’s campuses are prohibited by University Policy,” the university’s public safety department said in a statement. Anyone violating that rule could have their access to areas of campus restricted, Columbia said. And those who refuse to disperse could face “removal from campus and possible arrest.”
About a year after a wave of pro-Palestinian demonstrations spread through campuses across the country, the presidents of Haverford College, DePaul and California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo testified on Wednesday about reports of antisemitism on their campuses.
Multiple times during the hearing, which turned tense at moments, the president of Haverford College was pressed by Republican members of the committee for specifics on methods of discipline and investigated incidents. It often ended with Wendy Raymond declining to talk about “individual cases,” frustrating Republican members of the committee, who said the university’s federal funding could be jeopardized.
“Respectfully, president of Haverford, many people have sat in this position who are no longer in their positions as presidents of the university because of their failure to answer straightforward questions,” Rep. Elise Stefanik said.
This story has been updated with new information.
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CNN’s Emma Tucker, Holly Yan, Hanna Park, Yash Roy, Julianna Bragg, Joel Williams, Polo Sandoval and Gloria Pazmino contributed to this report.
