Columbia will offer hybrid classes for the remainder of the semester, the university announced on Monday evening, as tensions over pro-Palestine activism continue to dominate campus life.
In a letter addressed to "members of the Columbia community," Provost Angela V. Olinto wrote that it was "vital that teaching and learning continue during this time" but made no specific references to the protests themselves.
More than a hundred Columbia and Barnard students, including Representative Ilhan Omar's daughter, were arrested last week at the behest of university President Minouche Shafik.
After the university suspended the detained protestors, more than a hundred faculty members participated in a walk-out. Members of the Columbia Chapter of the American Association of University Professors are expected to move to censure Shafik, in response to her asking the New York Police Department to arrest the students.
The protests coincide with the Jewish religious holiday of Passover - which more than 100 Jewish students and faculty members celebrated from within the encampment, while participating in pro-Palestinian activism, the New York Times reported.
Other Jewish students, however, allege that the protests have led to a spike in on-campus antisemitism. One rabbi, associated with Columbia's Orthodox Union Jewish Learning Initiative urged Jewish students "return home as soon as possible and remain home."
In Olinto's letter to the campus community, she explained that any faculty members teaching classes at Columbia's main Morningside Heights campus were told to provide virtual learning opportunities to students who "need them." Any class that cannot be taught in a hybrid format will be required to go remote if students request the option.
If class cannot be held remotely, faculty members are expected to grant student accommodations "liberally."
