Columbia University Quietly Changed Policy Before Suspending Pro-Palestine Groups

School administrators changed Columbia’s events policies without the University Senate’s knowledge in order to suspend the Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace groups last Friday, according to Gerald Rosberg, senior executive vice president and chair of the Special Committee on Campus Safety. The Columbia Spectator had previously reported that the policies were revised after Oct. 12 protests staged by the two student groups but before the suspensions. “I know I am going to be living with this for a long time to come,” Rosberg said about his complicity in the rule change, adding that senior leadership would be re-examining the policy. At the University Senate meeting where Rosberg explained what had happened, student senators were outraged. Jeanine D’Armiento, chair of the executive committee of the University Senate, said the policy change was an “inconsistency in the events and the rules” and that they would “not accept any explanation that the [University] communication was clear.”