STORY: Columbia University classes go remote as U.S. campuses divided over Israel-Hamas conflict
SHOOTING TIME: April 23, 2024
DATELINE: April 24, 2024
LENGTH: 00:01:52
LOCATION: NEW YORK, U.S.
CATEGORY: SOCIETY

SHOTLIST:
1. SOUNDBITE 1 (English): MAX, Alumnus of Columbia University
2. SOUNDBITE 2 (English): ROSS, New York resident
3. SOUNDBITE 3 (English): CARL DIX, Representative of the Revolutionary Communist Party
4. various of the protest

STORYLINE:

Starting on Monday, all classes at Columbia University went virtual due to divisive demonstrations and debates around the Israel-Hamas conflict.

In his announcement, University president Minouche Shafik urged relevant parties to "sit down and talk and argue and find ways to compromise on solutions."

Shafik sent a letter to the New York Police Department (NYPD) on April 18, requesting that the police help remove individuals who had occupied the South Lawn of the university's Morningside Heights campus a day earlier.

The students with "Gaza Solidarity Encampment" opposed Israeli military action in Gaza and demanded the university divest from companies that "profit from Israeli apartheid."

"The continued encampment raises safety concerns for the individuals involved and the entire community," said Shafik in the letter.

He added that the encampment and related disruptions pose a clear and present danger to Columbia University's substantial functioning.

NYPD arrested more than 100 protesters on the campus in the afternoon of April 18.

Shafik denounced antisemitic behavior by students and professors. He pledged consequences during hearings on antisemitism at the House of Representatives on April 17.

The university also suspended students who participated in unauthorized protests and terminated a professor who supported Hamas's Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

In a statement on Saturday, the Barnard and Columbia chapters of the American Association of University Professors condemned the suspension and arrest of students engaged in peaceful protest.

"During the coming days, a working group of deans, university administrators and faculty members will try to bring this crisis to a resolution," said Shafik.

On Monday, security guards at Columbia University's Morningside Heights campus restricted entry only to those who could present university-issued ID. Meanwhile, more than 100 protesters and agitators rallied at a gate by Columbia University Bookstore on Broadway.

SOUNDBITE 1 (English): MAX, Alumnus of Columbia University
"I just came in. I don't have too much sense of what the framework is or the policy is. But what I see is nothing but division, and I don't know what the university is trying to do to facilitate people coming together."

Max said the administration could do more to bring people together and help them understand each other.

The students should have meetings, discussions and debates, but not take over the campus, said Ross, who declined to give his full name.

SOUNDBITE 2 (English): ROSS, New York resident
"They've lost control. I think the authorities at this university have lost control, and that it's become a one-sided conversation. There's no dialogue."

SOUNDBITE 3 (English): CARL DIX, Representative of the Revolutionary Communist Party, the U.S.
"When the police were called on the students who were doing the encampment, we saw this as an unacceptable escalation of repression. And we had to stand with the students against that. Opposing genocidal attacks is right, it's correct. And it's not antisemitism. And in fact, the people in the ruling class who run all this stuff about the Jews, Jewish conspiracy, they're the ones who are antisemitic, not these students here."

According to media reports, students from Yale University, New York University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Michigan, and the University of North Carolina also staged encampments in solidarity with their peers at Columbia University.

According to the local police department, more than 40 Yale University students were also arrested on Monday after occupying Beinecke Plaza in the center of campus since Friday night.

New York University ordered scores of student protesters to disperse on Monday afternoon after "a breach in the barriers set up at Gould Plaza."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from New York, U.S.
(XHTV)