University protesters are demanding amnesty to prevent arrests and suspensions

Maryam Alwan thought the worst was over when New York police in riot gear arrested her and other protesters on the campus of Columbia University, loaded them onto buses and held them in custody for hours.

But the following evening, the scholar received an email from the university. Alwan and other students were suspended after their arrests at “Gaza Solidarity camps,” tactical training colleges across the country that were deployed to silence growing campus protests against the Israel-Hamas war.

The situation of scholars became a central feature of the protests, with students and an increasing number of college demanding amnesty. At issue is whether or not universities and law enforcement will clear the allegations and refrain from other consequences, or whether suspensions and legal records will follow students into maturity.

Suspension terms vary by campus. At Columbia and its affiliate Barnard College for Women, Alwan and dozens of others were arrested on April 18 and immediately barred from campus and classes, unable to take part in person or virtually, and barred from dining halls.

Questions remain about their academic future. Will they have the option to take their final exams? What about financial aid? School graduation? Columbia says the outcomes might be determined at disciplinary hearings, but Alwan says she has not been given a date.

“It’s very dystopian,” said Alwan, a specialist in comparative literature and society.

What began in Colombia has escalated right into a nationwide showdown between students and the administration over anti-war protests and the boundaries of free speech. Over the past 10 days, a whole lot of scholars have been arrested, suspended, placed on probation, and in rare cases expelled from colleges and universities, including Yale University, the University of Southern California, Vanderbilt University and the University of Minnesota.

Barnard, the ladies’s liberal arts college at Columbia University, has suspended greater than 50 students arrested on April 18 and evicted them from campus housing, according to interviews with students and reports by the campus newspaper the Columbia Spectator, which obtained internal campus documents.

On Friday, Barnard announced it had reached agreements restoring access to campus for “almost all” of them. The university’s statement didn’t provide a number but said all students whose suspensions were lifted agreed to abide by university policies and, in some cases, were placed on probation.

But on the night of the arrests, Barnard student Maryam Iqbal posted the screenshot on X’s social media platform an email from the dean informing her that she could return to her room under campus security for some time before she was kicked out.

“You will have 15 minutes to gather what you may need,” the e-mail reads.

More than 100 faculty from Barnard and Columbia held a “Rally in Support of Our Students” last week, condemning student arrests and demanding an end to suspensions.

Columbia continues to push for the removal of the tent encampment on the campus’ foremost lawn, where the college’s May 15 graduation ceremony might be held. Students demanded that the college cut ties with corporations linked to Israel and provide amnesty for college students and faculty arrested or punished in reference to the protests.

Talks with student protesters are ongoing, said Ben Chang, a spokesman for Colombia. “We have our demands; they’ve their very own,” he said.

Radhika Sainath, an attorney with Palestine Legal who helped a bunch of Colombian students file a federal civil rights criticism against the college on Thursday, said for international students facing suspension there may be an added fear of losing their visas. He accuses Colombia of not doing enough to address discrimination against Palestinian students.

“The level of punishment is not even draconian, it seems excessively callous,” Sainath said.

Last week, greater than 40 students were arrested during demonstrations at Yale, including senior Craig Birckhead-Morton. He is scheduled to graduate on May 20, but says the university has not yet informed him whether his case might be referred to a disciplinary panel. He worries about whether he’ll receive his diploma and whether his acceptance to graduate school at Columbia could also be in jeopardy.

“The school did everything they could to ignore us and not tell us what would happen next,” said Birckhead-Morton, a history major.

Across the country, college administrators have struggled to strike a balance between free speech and inclusivity. Some demonstrations included hate speech, anti-Semitic threats or support for Hamas, the group that attacked Israel on October 7, sparking a war in Gaza that has killed greater than 34,000 people.

Let the opening ceremonies increase the pressure to clear the demonstrations. University officials say arrests and suspensions are a final resort and that they are giving adequate warnings upfront to clear protest areas.

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Vanderbilt University in Tennessee issued a choice to expel students believed to be the just one in reference to a protest against the Israel-Hamas conflict, according to the Institute for Middle East Understanding. On March 26, greater than two dozen students occupied the university chancellor’s office for several hours, prompting the university to call the police and arrest several protesters. Vanderbilt subsequently issued three expulsions, one suspension, and placed 22 protesters on probation.

In an open letter to Chancellor Daniel Diermeier, greater than 150 Vanderbilt professors criticized the crackdown on the university as “excessive and punitive.”

Freshman Jack Petocz, 19, one in every of those expelled, is allowed to attend classes pending an appeal. He was evicted from his dorm and lives off campus.

Petocz said his highschool protests helped him get into Vanderbilt and secure a scholarship for his contributions to activists and organizers. His college essay was about organizing walkouts in rural Florida to oppose Gov. Ron DeSantis’ anti-LGBTQ policies.

“Vanderbilt seemed to like it,” Petocz said. “Unfortunately, it ends when you start advocating for the liberation of Palestine.”