SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
claire shipman
Columbia President Greeted With Chants of 'Free Mahmoud!' During Graduation Speech
"You arrested us!" graduates shouted at one point in acting president Claire Shipman's address.
May 20, 2025
Columbia University administrators seemed intent on proceeding with an undergraduate commencement ceremony Tuesday as though the Ivy League school hasn't been at the center of student-led anti-genocide protests and government efforts to crack down on free speech for more than a year—but graduating students ensured the school's treatment of student organizers was front-and-center.
As acting president Claire Shipman approached the podium to address students at Columbia College's graduation, she was immediately met with loud booing.
She addressed the response, saying she knows many students feel "some amount of frustration" with her and the administration—but many of the graduates appeared uninterested in hearing from the university leader less than two weeks after she authorized the New York Police Department to enter the campus and arrest dozens of student protesters for occupying the university library in solidarity with Palestinians.
The Trump administration announced shortly after the arrests that they were reviewing the visa status of the student protesters—their latest escalation against pro-Palestinian organizers at the school.
"You arrested us!" graduates shouted at one point in Shipman's address, as she congratulated the Class of 2025 for making it "through one of the most rigorous schools in the world."
Mahmoud Khalil, the 2024 graduate who helped lead negotiations with administrators last year regarding divestment from Israel's military operation in Gaza, was also top-of-mind for many students who started chanting, "Free Mahmoud!" early in Shipman's speech.
"The work of your generation will be to shape these interesting times," Shipman said as the chants rang out.
More than two months after immigration agents arrested Khalil outside his on-campus apartment, he remains in detention in a Louisiana Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility. University trustees allegedly gave Khalil's name to the Trump administration ahead of his detention and the Trump administration's revocation of his green card, and administrators did not provide him with protection earlier this year when he told them he feared being swept up in the White House's plans to crack down on free speech.
The Trump administration is pushing to deport Khalil, claiming the pro-Palestinian views he expressed at student protests are detrimental to U.S. foreign policy interests. Khalil was one of thousands of U.S. college students who took part in protests calling for schools to divest from companies that benefit from Israel's assault on Gaza, which has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians in 19 months and has included a blockade on humanitarian aid, pushing the civilian population toward famine.
Since stepping in as acting president in March, Shipman has met with faculty that object to Columbia's capitulation to the Trump administration; mentioned the names of Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi, another student who was marked for deportation but subsequently freed; and started a website for students who fear deportation.
But students' response on Tuesday suggested they've taken more notice of Shipman's summoning of the NYPD earlier this month and the school's agreement to the Trump administration's demands aimed at rooting out what the White House claims is "antisemitism"—including imposing a ban on masks, appointing an administrator to oversee Middle Eastern and Palestinian studies, and hiring dozens of "special officers" authorized to swiftly remove students from campus.
Students erupted in jeers and laughs when Shipman praised the Class of 2025 for being "curious, determined, and open-minded," and again chanted, "Free Mahmoud!" at another point in the speech.
A larger commencement ceremony is scheduled for Wednesday. Columbia University Apartheid Divest called on members of the school community to attend a protest action coinciding with the graduation.
"No commencement as usual under genocide," read a social media post announcing the protest.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Trump Admin 'Reviewing' Visas After Arrest of Dozens of Pro-Palestinian Protesters at Columbia
"Repression breeds resistance—if Columbia escalates repression, the people will continue to escalate disruptions on this campus," wrote Columbia University Apartheid Divest.
May 08, 2025
The New York Police Department arrested dozens of pro-Palestinian protestors on Columbia University's campus on Wednesday evening—prompting U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio to announce on X that the federal government is reviewing the visa status of those involved in the action.
On Wednesday afternoon, masked protestors, many wearing keffiyehs, gathered in Columbia's Butler Library. Video of the protest posted to social media shows demonstrators inside the library chanting "free Palestine."
Columbia has been under intense scrutiny from the Trump administration in recent months over the school's alleged failure to protect Jewish students. Critics say the administration is weaponizing antisemitism to attack Palestinian rights advocates. In March, the school faced backlash for making policy changes in line with demands from the Trump administration following the administration's decision to freeze $400 million in federal grants for the school.
Late Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on X: "We are reviewing the visa status of the trespassers and vandals who took over Columbia University's library. Pro-Hamas thugs are no longer welcome in our great nation."
In January, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order with the professed aim of rooting out antisemitism at higher education institutions, and vowed to target foreign-born students who have engaged in "pro-jihadist" protests.
Acting university president Claire Shipman authorized the NYPD to enter campus around 7 pm on Wednesday in response to the rally in the library, according to the Columbia Daily Spectator. The student paper reported that the NYPD arrested roughly 75 protesters and began leading them out of the library shortly thereafter.
The Daily Spectator also reported that there were altercations between the police and protestors after the arrests made in connection to the library protest.
Eighty people "who did not comply with verbal warnings by the NYPD to disperse" were taken into custody, according to the NYPD, per reporting from CNN. Seventy-eight of those taken into custody were arrested and two others were issued summonses, the NYPD told the outlet. CNN noted that it's not clear how many of those arrested came from the protest inside the building.
The group Columbia University Apartheid Divest wrote on Substack on Wednesday that the protestors renamed the library in honor of Palestinian activist Basil al-Araj.
The organizers said that the action at the library "shows that as long as Columbia funds and profits from imperialist violence, the people will continue to disrupt Columbia's profits and legitimacy. Repression breeds resistance—if Columbia escalates repression, the people will continue to escalate disruptions on this campus."
In May of last year, the NYPD swept an occupation of Hamilton Hall and arrested dozens of student protestors.
Wednesday's events come not long after arrests by federal immigration agents of multiple noncitizens who had been active in pro-Palestine actions on Columbia's campus.
In March, federal immigration agents arrested pro-Palestinian activist and former Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil, who is currently languishing in an U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Jena, Louisiana. Another Palestinian green-card holder active in Columbia's student protest movement, Mohsen Mahdawi, was also arrested by federal immigration agents, but last month was released on bail.
Both of those cases have generated significant national attention.
Keep ReadingShow Less
150+ University Leaders Denounce 'Unprecedented' Overreach and Political Coercion by Trump
"The price of abridging the defining freedoms of American higher education will be paid by our students and our society."
Apr 22, 2025
A public statement signed by the presidents of more than 150 colleges and universities on Tuesday condemning U.S. President Donald Trump's "political interference" on campuses was notable not only for the higher education leaders who joined the call, said advocates—but for those who didn't.
The open letter, organized by the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AACU) and titled "A Call for Constructive Engagement," was hardly promoting "a radical idea," said the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) at University of Texas at Austin—but the school's president, Jim Davis, was not on the list of signatories.
UT-Austin was one of several where police violently cracked down on student protesters last year when campus demonstrations expressing solidarity with Palestinians facing Israel's U.S.-backed bombardment spread across the country.
A year after those protests took off, starting at Columbia University, the Trump administration has in recent weeks revoked the visas of hundreds of international students for their involvement in student activism, and has claimed to be fighting antisemitism by sending immigration agents to arrest student organizers including Mahmoud Khalil, Rumeysa Ozturk, and Mohsen Mahdawi, all of whom are still in detention and are being threatened with deportation.
"As leaders of America's colleges, universities, and scholarly societies, we speak with one voice against the unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education," reads the public statement released Tuesday, which was signed by university presidents and leaders including Felix V. Matos-Rodriguez of City University of New York, Maurie McInnis of Yale, Alan M. Garber of Harvard, and Christopher L. Eisgruber of Princeton.
"Our colleges and universities share a commitment to serve as centers of open inquiry where, in their pursuit of truth, faculty, students, and staff are free to exchange ideas and opinions across a full range of viewpoints without fear of retribution, censorship, or deportation," the statement continues.
The open letter came a day after Harvard University filed a lawsuit against members of the Trump administration and several federal agencies over the White House's $2.2 billion funding freeze and threat to have the school's tax-exempt status revoked—actions that could threaten crucial cancer research and other biomedical and scientific work.
"Our colleges and universities share a commitment to serve as centers of open inquiry where, in their pursuit of truth, faculty, students, and staff are free to exchange ideas and opinions across a full range of viewpoints without fear of retribution, censorship, or deportation."
The Trump administration's threats to Harvard came in response to the elite university's announcement that it would not comply with the president's demands to "audit its academic programs for viewpoint diversity," expel students involved in an altercation that happened at a pro-Palestinian protest in 2023, and end its recognition of Palestinian solidarity campus groups.
The university leaders who signed Tuesday's statement said they "are open to constructive reform and do not oppose legitimate government oversight."
"However, we must oppose undue government intrusion in the lives of those who learn, live, and work on our campuses," they said. "We will always seek effective and fair financial practices, but we must reject the coercive use of public research funding."
The statement also followed the passage of several resolutions by faculty senates at schools in the Big Ten Academic Alliance, led by Rutgers University, which was the first to call for a "mutual defense compact" last month—urging university leaders to commit to band together against Trump's incursion on college campuses and to share resources in the event of a direct attack on students or faculty at their schools.
"I am glad this finally happened," said Rutgers professor Todd Wolfson of the statement released by AACU. "AAUP has been calling for this letter for over a month. If your college or university president did not sign, you need to demand an answer."
Among those who should demand answers from university leaders, suggested some critics on Tuesday, were students and faculty members at Columbia University, whose acting president, Claire Shipman, did not sign the initial letter. Shipman added her signature later in the day on Tuesday.
Columbia allowed police to violently crack down on pro-Palestinian student protesters last year, revoked the degrees of some student organizers, refused to provide protection to Khalil and Mahdawi before their arrests, and at least one university trustee allegedly gave Khalil's name to the Trump administration before he was detained.
Those who did sign on to the statement warned that "the price of abridging the defining freedoms of American higher education will be paid by our students and our society."
"On behalf of our current and future students, and all who work at and benefit from our institutions," reads the statement, "we call for constructive engagement that improves our institutions and serves our republic."
Note: This piece has been updated to include a mention of Claire Shipman's signature , which was added to the letter later on Tuesday, April 22.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular