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Student protesters sit and watch outside Hamilton Hall, where students at Columbia University continue protesting in support of Palestinians and barricaded themselves inside the building despite orders from university officials to disband a protest encampment or face suspension, during the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in New York City, U.S., April 30, 2024. REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs
"Continuing to do so will be met with clear consequences. Protesters have chosen to escalate to an untenable situation - vandalising property, breaking doors and windows, and blockading entrances - and we are following through with the consequences we outlined yesterday," university spokesperson Ben Chang said in the statement.
Protests against the Gaza war, with its high Palestinian civilian death toll, have posed a challenge to university administrators trying to balance free speech rights with complaints that the rallies have veered into antisemitism and hate.
The unrest has swept through US higher education institutions like wildfire, with many student protesters erecting tent encampments on campus grounds from Connecticut to Texas to California after around 100 protesters were first arrested at Columbia on Apr 18.
Columbia said its threat of expulsion and other responses were aimed at the actions of the protesters, and not at their cause.
Masked individuals smashed windows and blocked doors with metal tables early Tuesday after administrators began suspending protesting students.
"As we said yesterday, disruptions on campus have created a threatening environment for many of our Jewish students and faculty and a noisy distraction that interferes with teaching, learning, and preparing for final exams, and contributes to a hostile environment in violation of Title VI," Chang said, referring to the code which protects students from discrimination or harassment.
The White House has sharply criticised the seizure of the building. The Republican Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, branded the protests "terrorism" and called for the resignation of Columbia University's president, Minouche Shafik.
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