New York, Thursday, May 9, 2024 (WAFA) – A group representing thousands of Columbia University alumni from its 20 schools and across decades of graduating classes has pledged to withhold all “financial, programmatic and academic support” in an open letter to Columbia University’s President Minouche Shafik and its trustees until the university meets demands related to divestment, student discipline and community safety.
In the letter released this week, alumni estimated that the pledge puts $41 million in financial contributions at risk. It was issued in addition to petitions calling for a stop to the unjust expulsion and suspensions of student protesters, and nearly two score letters previously sent to the administration representing thousands of alumni who graduated between 1966 and 2023 from all of the University’s schools and identified across a variety of racial, ethnic and religious groups.
“I sign because my Jewish values of inquiry, empathy and moral courage compel me to,” said an alumna of CC ’03 and CLS ’10 who grew up in both New York and Jerusalem. “These values were nurtured in Columbia classrooms, and I know other Columbia students share them. Until my university can conduct itself in accordance with those values internally, within its communities, and around the world, it does not deserve my esteem, much less contributions of my time, money or skills.”
The alumni letter follows the University’s unprecedented aggressive actions against pro-Palestine student protesters, including suspensions and expulsion processes with inadequate due process.
This, as well as the events of April 30 and weeks prior, where Columbia University administration twice deployed New York Police Department forces to clear an encampment that represented a non-violent protest and the takeover of Hamilton Hall, renamed Hind’s Hall by the protesters after a six-year-old Palestinian girl was killed by the Israeli military in January.
The police action, during which an officer’s gun was shot inside Hamilton/Hind’s Hall, resulted in 112 arrests, including students, supporters and community members; a similar action 20 blocks north at City College at the same time resulted in 170 arrests. Some of those arrested were denied food and water for 16 hours and even placed in solitary confinement.
Since then, violence against student protesters has escalated around New York and elsewhere, including an incident on May 7 where student protesters were deliberately hit by a car.
“It’s truly disappointing to see the way the university has been responding to the students,” said Taha Saeed, GSAS ’23. “Universities are places for free speech and discourse, not police brutality. Most importantly, by failing to review its investments and divest where appropriate, the university is playing a role in the ongoing violence in Gaza. I hope they wake up and get on the right side of history.”
Despite claims by President Shafik that bringing police into campus, and keeping a police presence was necessary until May 17 to carry out graduation ceremonies, the university has since moved smaller events five miles north of campus.
The signatories of the alumni letter pledge to withhold support from the university until demands are met in three areas:
- Palestinian Liberation and Human Rights – Columbia must divest from all companies and institutions that fund or profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide and occupation in Palestine and provide greater accountability and transparency around investments; call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
- Safety, Dignity and Civil Rights of Students – Columbia must drop all changes and reverse suspensions and disciplinary action on students; end policing and militarization of campus by removing the NYPD; finance healthcare for students brutalized on April 30; return student belongings; reinstate the two pro-Palestine student groups suspended; and end the targeting of Palestinian students and their allies.
- Safety, Integrity and Well-Being of Columbia and Surrounding Community – Columbia must hold accountable faculty, administrators and other affiliates who have harassed and assaulted students; sever academic ties with Israel; invest in the Morningside Heights community; and remove Pres. Shafik from her position as University President.
The letter is part of a series of actions that more than 6,000 alumni of conscience have collectively taken in response to the crackdown on student human rights defenders, in addition to weeks of physical and material support for students, and attempts to engage with administration around this issue. Among the plans are alternative reunion events to coincide with official reunion events scheduled for May 30 to June 1.
“At Columbia, I studied colonialism and protested the war in Iraq,” said Sabreena Karim CC ’03. “Columbia taught me to challenge the status quo and fight for the justice of all people. To see Columbia diametrically opposed to the plight of the Palestinian people and worse, to see Columbia penalize their students for acting upon their education, is an abomination of Columbia’s core values.”
SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR) 