More than 1,000 new students began their freshman year at Columbia University this week, but the start of the academic year has already shown signs of the tensions that plagued the campus last year.
Despite significant changes over the summer, including the appointment of a new university president, familiar issues have quickly resurfaced. Last year’s disruptions, marked by occasionally violent anti-Israel protests and criticism of university leaders for failing to protect Jewish students, seem poised to continue.
Brian Cohen, executive director of Columbia Barnard Hillel, shared with Jewish Insider that he anticipates "plenty of activism again on campus, at least some of which will be highly disruptive."
These disruptions began even before classes officially started. At a convocation event on Sunday meant to welcome incoming freshmen, around 50 members of Columbia University Apartheid Divest—masked, wearing keffiyehs, and armed with megaphones and drums—disrupted the event from just outside the campus gates, chanting "Free Palestine."
The group, which refers to itself as a "student intifada," also distributed flyers warning students that they were being subjected to "propaganda delivered to you by war criminals of an administration."
A spokesperson for Columbia University confirmed that the NYPD was present at the protest as a precaution but did not comment on the university's plans to manage potentially larger demonstrations as the year progresses.