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Student Activism

Chris Hedges: Surrendering To Authoritarianism

March 25, 2025 Chris Hedges, Scheer Post. , , , ,
I was not surprised when Columbia University’s interim president Katrina Armstrong caved to the demands of the Trump administration. She agreed to ban face masks or face coverings, prohibit protests in academic buildings and create an internal security force of 36 New York City Police officers empowered to “remove individuals from campus and/or arrest them when appropriate.” She has also surrendered the autonomy of academic departments, as demanded by the Trump administration, by appointing a new senior vice provost to “review” the university’s department of Middle East, South Asian and African Studies and the Center for Palestine Studies.

Federal Agents Seek Detention Of Cornell Graduate Momodou Taal

March 22, 2025 Matt Dougherty, Ithaca Times. , , , , ,
Ithaca, N.Y. — Days after filing a lawsuit against the Trump administration that challenges the constitutionality of two executive orders that violate free speech, Cornell graduate student Momodou Taal has said that he is being watched by federal agents who could be looking to detain and potentially deport him before he can make his case in court on Tuesday. “This morning, shortly after a federal judge scheduled a hearing in my lawsuit demanding the courts strike down Trump's executive orders attacking free speech, law enforcement from an unidentified agency came to my home in Ithaca, New York,” Taal said in a social media post on Wednesday, March 19.

The Chris Hedges Report: America’s Constitutional Crisis

March 20, 2025 Chris Hedges, Scheer Post. , , , , , ,
Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest and detention in a Louisiana ICE facility is a harbinger for a new authoritarian era of the United States. Khalil’s arrest, the capitulation of Columbia University against dissent and protest by its own students and the Trump administration’s threat of stripping the university of $400 million in grants if it does not meet its requests is just one place where the tentacles of fascism tighten their grip. Katherine Franke, a former law school professor at Columbia, is on the front lines of this assault. Her support for student protests and her condemnation of the university for not addressing the harassment of pro-Palestinian students has earned what she called, “a termination dressed up in more palatable terms.”

Palestinian Political Prisoner Mahmoud Khalil Releases Statement

March 19, 2025 Scheer Post. , , , , , ,
Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder with permanent residency, has released his first public statement since his arrest on March 8. He was taken into custody by plainclothes Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officers in the lobby of his Columbia University apartment complex due to his alleged connection to Hamas. His statement, released Tuesday, was dictated by phone to family members from an ICE center in Louisiana. Khalil, who has not yet been charged with a crime, said he is a “political prisoner” and expressed concern with the political and social climate in the United States that led to his arrest.

Union President Responds To Repression

March 19, 2025 Grant Miner, Left Voice. , , , , , ,
Last week, I was expelled from Columbia University for protesting the U.S.-backed genocide in Gaza. As president of Student Workers of Columbia, Columbia’s student workers union, I was also fired from my job. The Trump administration is pushing their narrative. Here’s the real story. Thousands of students across the country have been exercising our First Amendment rights to oppose genocide. Standing against genocide is not just a moral imperative—it is an act of anti-racism and solidarity. Columbia’s response? Expulsions, suspensions, and retaliation.

Right To Free Speech Curtailed On Cornell Campus

March 19, 2025 Katie Church, Danny Creamer and Josh Dolan, Popular Resistance. , , , , ,
On March 10, we as members of the Ithaca community joined with Cornell students and allies to exercise our First Amendment right to protest on behalf of the Palestinians in Gaza, who are the victims of genocide at the hands of the Israeli Occupation Forces. We and multiple students were arrested on the orders of Cornell’s president, self-proclaimed 1st Amendment champion Michael Kotlikoff. His office had invited a panel comprised of war criminals and genocide enablers from the US and Israeli government, with a token former Palestinian government official who had a <25% approval rating by Palestinians, under the guise of discussing "pathways to peace".

A Love Letter To The Student Movement

March 18, 2025 Carrie Zaremba, In These Times. , , , , , ,
In January, Gaza took its first tenuous breath of stillness in more than a year. It is a moment of clarity, a reminder that our work is far from done. For the student movement, this is a call to recalibrate and push forward. We cannot mistake temporary stillness for resolution, nor recognition for accomplishment. Nothing short of full liberation can be our goal. By now, you know that universities have nothing to offer us but spectacle and scorn. The U.S. ruling class has spent decades perfecting its support of Zionism, with universities as central pipelines for research, propaganda and profit.

Columbia Student Workers Rally Against Expulsions And Arrests

March 16, 2025 Olivia Wood, Left Voice. , , , , , ,
It’s been an intense and infuriating couple of weeks at Columbia University. Students expelled. Visas revoked. $400 million in funding held hostage by the federal government. An escalation, when Mahmoud Khalil was told his green card was suspended before being arrested by government agents from the lobby of his apartment building in the middle of the night. And most recently, Thursday night, the announcement that 22 students and recent graduates had been suspended, expelled, or had their diplomas revoked. One of the expelled students is Grant Miner, the president of the Student Workers of Columbia.

Columbia University Expels Student Protesters, Fires Union President

March 15, 2025 Michael Arria, Mondoweiss. , , , , , ,
On Thursday, Columbia University issued suspensions, expulsions, and temporary degree revocations to a number of students connected to the April 2024 occupation of the school’s Hamilton Hall. The announcement from the University Judicial Board came on the same day as a campus ICE raid, with Department of Homeland Security agents executing search warrants on two Columbia University residences. “I am writing heartbroken to inform you that we had federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security (D.H.S.) in two university residences tonight,” Interim President Dr. Katrina Armstrong told students and staff in an email.

DHS Agents Descend On Columbia’s Campus Again With Two Warrants

March 14, 2025 Prem Thakker, Zeteo. , , , , ,
Less than a week after immigration authorities detained Columbia student protest leader Mahmoud Khalil, Department of Homeland Security agents were back on the university’s campus to serve two search warrants. “I am writing heartbroken to inform you that we had federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in two University residences tonight. No one was arrested or detained,” Columbia interim president Katrina Armstrong wrote in an email to the university community late Thursday. “No items were removed, and no further action was taken. Federal agents from the DHS served Columbia University with two judicial search warrants signed by a federal magistrate judge authorizing DHS to enter non-public areas of the University and conduct searches of two student rooms.”

Mahmoud Khalil Will Remain Detained In Louisiana

March 13, 2025 Michael Arria, Mondoweiss. , , , , ,
Mahmoud Khalil will continue to be detained at an ICE facility in Louisiana following a brief hearing in New York City on Wednesday morning. In response to a habeas corpus petition and a request to have him transferred back to New York, where he was arrested, federal judge Jesse Furman called for more briefs from Khalil’s lawyers and the U.S. government. Trump attorneys informed the court that they will submit a motion to transfer or dismiss Khalil’s habeas corpus petition, as they view New York as “an improper venue” for the case and do not believe it has any jurisdiction.

How Pro-Palestine Student Activists Are Fighting Increasing Repression

March 12, 2025 Sam Carliner, Waging Nonviolence. , , , , ,
The student movement for Palestine is once again in the news following reports that ICE detained Mahmoud Khalil, a leader of pro-Palestine organizing at Columbia University. The Trump administration appears to be delivering on its promise to go after foreign students who participate in the movement for Palestine. Trump has already passed several executive orders as part of this McCarthyist attack on universities. The outrage against Khalil’s detention is clear. In just over a day, a petition calling for Khalil’s release has been sent over 2.3 million times.

We Are International Students Organizing For Palestine

March 11, 2025 Mondoweiss. , , , , ,
We are international students who have organized in solidarity with the Palestine liberation struggle over the past 16 months. We write anonymously because the moment demands, strategically, that we do so. However, we will not be silenced. You may censure and suspend us, you may send ICE to knock down our doors, you may deport us back to our home countries, but we are only one drop in a vast ocean, and the tide of support for Palestine is rising everywhere. Israel’s ongoing genocide has shaken the outrage of the free people of the world. While the so-called international community appears largely content to censure the zionist state and continue with business as usual, we cannot unsee images of nineteen year old student Shaban Ahmed Al-Dalou burning to death in his tent attached to an IV drip after Israeli forces bombed families sheltering in Deir al-Balah.

Columbia University Cracks Down On Pro-Palestine Student Activists

March 8, 2025 News Desk, The Cradle. , , , , , , ,
Students at Columbia University who expressed opposition to the US–Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza are being investigated by a secretive disciplinary body known as the Office of Institutional Equity (OIE), which is targeting anyone involved in activities ranging from sharing social media posts supporting Palestinians to participating in “unauthorized” protests. Drop Site News reports that Columbia requires students under investigation for “discrimination based on their speech” to sign a non-disclosure agreement to access unredacted evidence against them, effectively blocking public discussion of the accusations and process.

Barnard Students Sit-In To Defend Right To Protest For Palestine

February 27, 2025 Samuel Karlin, Left Voice. , , , , , ,
On Wednesday night, Columbia students staged a sit-in at the administrative offices of Barnard College in New York City. This comes as part of a week of action to protest Barnard College’s move to expel two students for engaging in pro-Palestine activism. Barnard College is part of Columbia University, the Ivy League university which has been an epicenter of the student movement for Palestine in the United States. The current protest comes after months of more subdued activity from the student movement, following the brutal repression that universities deployed against Gaza solidarity encampments last spring under Biden’s presidency.
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