It’s going to be an interesting Alumni Weekend at Columbia University, where pro-Palestine student protestors have once again reestablished an encampment on the school’s lawn.
This comes after the NYPD cleared out the protest encampment at the start of May, which made headlines as images of young people being arrested on campus hit the airwaves and sparked a wave of police intervention at university protests across the nation. Students first took up residence on the university grounds with around 50 tents in April, to protest the school’s financial interests in the Hamas War.
After 112 people were arrested and the tents were subsequently removed from the campus lawn, the school remained quiet but still canceled university-wide commencement in lieu of smaller individualized ceremonies.
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Now, just in time for Columbia Reunion 2024, which lasts from Thursday through Saturday, protesting students have set up new tents and declared the school’s South Lawn as a “Liberated Zone” for the third time.
“This encampment follows the revelation that Columbia University has been colluding with the billionaire lobby, acting on behalf of foreign governments to brutalize, mass arrest, and siege our campus with the NYPD,” a statement from the X page of Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine reads.
Video that has emerged from the new encampment’s early setup shows a sign that states, “We’re back, bitches.”
