Columbia University says it has expelled or suspended some students who took over a campus building during pro-Palestinian protests last spring, and had temporarily revoked the diplomas of some students who have since graduated.

Columbia University says it has expelled or suspended some students who took over a campus building during pro-Palestinian protests in Spring 2024 and temporarily revoked the diplomas of some students who have since graduated.

Columbia University says it has expelled or suspended some students who took over a campus building during pro-Palestinian protests last spring, and had temporarily revoked the diplomas of some students who have since graduated.

In February, the House Committee on Education and Workforce sent a letter to Columbia’s interim president, Katrina Armstrong, and Columbia’s board chairs, David Greenwald and Claire Shipman, listing “numerous antisemitic incidents” that it said had taken place in the last two academic years.

The arrest of pro-Palestinian organizer Mahmoud Khalil has become a flashpoint on the rights of legal U.S. residents and free speech.

Columbia University on Thursday said it had doled out a range of punishments to students who occupied a campus building last spring during pro-Palestinian protests. The announcement came a week after President Donald Trump's administration announced that it had canceled $400 million in federal grants and contracts in response to what it said was the Ivy League school's poor response to antisemitism on campus.

The arrest and threatened deportation of a student activist at Columbia University is a threat to free speech on campus and across the U.S., says professor Michael Thaddeus.

The sanctions include multi-year suspensions, expulsions and revoked degrees based on an “evaluation of the severity of behaviors.”