Columbia University President Nemat Minouche Shafik has faced backlash from students, faculty, outside commentators and now the Columbia University Senate for summoning New York police to dismantle a tent encampment set up on campus by protesters against Israel's war in Gaza.
The policy-making Senate — consisting of faculty, students and some administrators — on Friday criticized the handling of a pro-Palestinian protest at the prestigious school, and voted to create a task force to investigate the university's leadership and actions.
Following a two-hour meeting, the Senate passed a resolution stating that Shafik's administration had undermined academic freedom and neglected the privacy and due process rights of students and faculty members by involving law enforcement and shutting down the protest, Reuters reported.
"The decision ... has raised serious concerns about the administration's respect for shared governance and transparency in the university decision-making process," it said.
In the past week, over 100 individuals were arrested on Columbia's campus as police removed tents from the main lawn of the school's Manhattan campus.
However, that didn't stop the protesters from returning and setting up tents again, limiting Columbia's options for dismantling them.
Subsequently, hundreds of protesters have been arrested at schools spanning from California to Boston as students established similar camps, calling for their schools to divest from companies involved with Israel's military. More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks launched in response to a Hamas assault in early October that killed 1,200 Israelis and the taking of hundreds of hostages.
