UCLA Indefinitely Bans SJP
UCLA has issued a preliminary ban for the campus Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter and a preliminary four-year suspension for the Graduate Students for Justice in Palestine (GSJP) chapter on March 28.
Back in February, Chancellor Julio Frenk announced that the two student groups were suspended after “individuals affiliated with the student groups harassed Mr. Sures and members of his family outside his home” and that “individuals vandalized the Sures home by applying red-colored handprints to the outer walls of the home and hung banners on the property’s hedges.” The Los Angeles Times reported that the student groups can appeal the decision, which has not yet been finalized. Additionally, the Times noted that the sanctions “do not prevent them from protesting on campus. As a public institution, limited parts of UCLA’s grounds are open to anybody to demonstrate at most times of day. But the moves prevent the organizations from registering for campus event space, applying for student activities funds and otherwise representing themselves as UCLA organizations.”
The university said in a statement, “UCLA is committed to fostering an environment where all students can live and learn freely and peacefully … We will continue to uphold our policies to ensure UCLA remains a safe and respectful learning environment for all members of our Bruin community.”
Katrina Armstrong Resigns as Columbia President
Katrina Armstrong resigned from her position as president of Columbia University on March 28.
The university announced that Armstrong will be leading the Irving Medical Center at the university; Claire Shipman, the co-chair of the university’s Board of Trustees, will be taking over as the interim president. Armstrong’s resignation comes after reports from The Free Press and Washington Free Beacon came out stating that Armstrong told faculty members privately that the agreement with the Trump administration’s demands to address campus antisemitism wouldn’t change much on campus; per the reports, Armstrong told faculty that there would be no ban on masking or change in admissions procedures despite both being demands from the administration. Provost Angela Olinto also reportedly told faculty that the school’s Middle East, South Asian and African Studies department would not be under an “academic receivership” for five years despite that also being a demand from the administration. The agreement was part of an effort to begin talks for the administration to restore $400 million in funding to Columbia.
“Dr. Armstrong accepted the role of interim president at a time of great uncertainty for the University and worked tirelessly to promote the interests of our community,” Board of Trustees Chair David Greenwald said in a statement. “Katrina has always given her heart and soul to Columbia. We appreciate her service and look forward to her continued contributions to the University.”
New Columbia President Reportedly Referred to Congressional Hearings on Campus Antisemitism “Nonsense”
Claire Shipman, the new interim president of Columbia University, reportedly referred to the congressional hearings on campus antisemitism as being “nonsense.”
According to Fox News and The New York Post, Shipman wrote in a Dec. 2023 text message to then-University President Minouche Shafik that a New York Times article stating at the time that the school handled anti-Israel protests better than other Ivy League universities “heavily inoculates us for a while from the capital [sic] hill nonsense and threat.” The purported text was discovered in a 325-page House Committee on Education and the Workforce report in October. She also reportedly wrote in a text to Shafik at the time that “we should think about unsuspending the groups before semester starts to take the wind out of that,” referring to anti-Israel groups that the committee report claimed violated university policy with the protests. A university spokesperson told Fox News, “We are focused on doing what is right and honoring our commitments to create a Columbia community where students are safe and able to flourish.”
Cornell Student Involved in Anti-Israel Protests Self-Deports
Momodou Taal, an Africana doctoral studies student at Cornell University and a dual citizen of the United Kingdom and Gambia, announced on March 31 that he has left the United States after his student visa was revoked.
CNN had previously reported that Taal had posted “Glory to the resistance!” on X as well as “colonised peoples have the right to resist by any means necessary” and that Taal was suspended twice by the university in 2024 after he allegedly took part in “disruptive protest activities.” “Given what we have seen across the United States, I have lost faith that a favourable ruling from the courts would guarantee my personal safety and ability to express my beliefs,” Taal wrote in a statement posted to X on March 31, adding that “the repression of Palestinian solidarity is now being used to wage a wholesale attack on any form of expression that challenges oppressive and exploitative relations in the US.”
