Students say they have lost trust and are in limbo after New York officers arrested Gaza protesters.

Police and private security throng every entrance but one. Steel barriers line the streets. Students pack up belongings in their cars and leave for home - classes are cancelled, and exam plans are up in the air.

Everywhere there is gloom, and uncertainty about what happens next at Columbia University.

Students told the BBC that the university’s decision to call in police to clear a Gaza protest late on Tuesday, leading to a raid on the occupied Hamilton Hall and hundreds of arrests, has left the college community shattered.

The university president, Nemat Shafik, said that it was with great regret that she ordered the police raid against students and others she said had infiltrated the protest. It would “take time to heal”, she added in a message in the operation’s aftermath.

For students of this prestigious school in Manhattan, New York, how long is unclear.

  • ArtVandelay@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1124·
    1 year ago

    It would “take time to heal”, she added

    That’s some big “I’m sorry you made me do this to you” abuser energy there

      • thesporkeffect@lemmy.world
        161·
        1 year ago

        I can make some educated guesses on who forced her to do it.

        Edit: upon learning more about her, no, it seems like she’s just like that

    • Aceticon@lemmy.world
      22·
      1 year ago

      Most of what she said are pretty typical non-exuses in British politics and upper class circles, which is were she made her whole career up to this.

    • solrize@lemmy.world
      32·
      1 year ago

      I had never heard of her before. Wow:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minouche_Shafik

      Nemat Talaat Shafik, Baroness Shafik, (Arabic: نعمت طلعت شفيق) DBE, HonFBA (born 13 August 1962), commonly known as Minouche Shafik (Arabic: مينوش شفيق), is a British-American academic and economist.[2] She has been serving as the 20th president of Columbia University since July 2023. She previously served as president and vice chancellor of the London School of Economics from 2017 to 2023.

      From 2014 to 2017, Shafik served as deputy governor of the Bank of England and also previously as permanent secretary of the United Kingdom Department for International Development from 2008 to 2011.[3] She has also served as a vice president at the World Bank[4] and as deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund.[5] She was created a life peeress by Elizabeth II in 2020.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
    374·
    1 year ago

    Imagine if the Columbia administration decided they could swim in regular water instead of a moneybin like Scrooge McDuck and divested the university from Israel. Maybe all of this could have been avoided.

    • thesporkeffect@lemmy.world
      266·
      1 year ago

      Try not giving boomer ass platitudes that you have clearly put about 20 seconds of thought into.

      Do you tell struggling minorities in southern states to ‘just move to a blue state’? I’m sure no one has forgotten this is an option, and I expect that future enrollment to the school is going to be way less, but this is an immediate problem and transferring is a semester-scale solution. Some of the students may be ready to graduate as well.

      • RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world
        7·
        1 year ago

        Actually, a national student strike would be incredibly effective. Just like it was after Kent State.

        You cannot fund weapons development on donations alone.

        • firadin@lemmy.world
          21·
          1 year ago

          Harvard makes more money from it’s investments than from tuition. I can’t even imagine what their land holdings are netting them.

  • anon_8675309@lemmy.world
    1127·
    1 year ago

    I was with them (because one SHOULD be able to exercise their constitutional rights) until they started breaking shit.

    We have a right to peacefully assemble, not act like idiots.

    Now, I still wish this was handled differently. They really should have tried to just go after the idiots and not everyone.

  • Jorgumander@lemmy.world
    Banned from community
    986·
    1 year ago

    Those “peaceful protestors” were smashing windows and camping in tents on the lawn of the Universities. And that’s not even the worst part, where they are actively supporting Hamas. Sounds like they’re just angry about facing consequences, to me.