As Columbia University president Minouche Shafik was testifying before the House, students were setting up a tent city on the campus south lawn which they called “Gaza Solidarity Encampment.” The encampment was a violation of Columbia’s rules, so Shafik announced that students involved would be suspended and called in the New York Police Department to arrest them. That, too, was against Columbia’s rules.

In her letter to the NYPD authorizing the arrests, Shafik wrote that “All University students participating in the encampment have been informed they are suspended.”

Mayor Eric Adams confirmed in a Thursday evening press conference that the NYPD arrested over 108 protesters. Adams said that there was “no violence or injuries during the disturbance.” All arrested individuals had been released from custody by 10:36 p.m. on Thursday, according to two Columbia Law Students. The students told Spectator they were doing “legal intake” for individuals as they were released from police custody at One Police Plaza.

It’s unclear what’s meant by “legal intake” by law students, although reports include two “legal observers” were arrested even though they were wearing their green hats, which somehow exempts them from consequences for their conduct. But why such an extreme reaction?

The encampment, she said, “severely disrupts campus life, and creates a harassing and intimidating environment for many of our students.”

The students who created the encampment, she said, “violated a long list of rules and policies.”

On the other hand, Shafik was already under harsh scrutiny, both in a lawsuit and from Republicans in the House. The only problem is that calling in outside law enforcement has rules as well, and no matter how much Shafik sought to prove her “toughness” under the current circumstances, and perhaps prevent the backlash suffered by Harvard’s Claudine Gay, rules cut both ways.

Shafik notified the campus community in an email on Thursday afternoon that she authorized NYPD on campus in accordance with Section 444 of the University statutes.

The executive committee of the University Senate—the body that the President should consult pursuant to Section 444—did “not approve the presence of NYPD on our campus at this time,” an email, obtained by Spectator, to Shafik sent on the behalf of faculty and student members of the executive committee reads.

Despite not obtaining approval of the executive committee, Shafik acted under a caveat that permitted emergency action for a “clear and present danger.” Attack of the Killer Tents?

Afterward, students moved to the opposite lawn and, with the addition of students angered by Shafik’s having cops arrest protesters, the protests continued.

The new tents popped up — one, two, three — on Columbia’s campus. It was a defiant gesture on Thursday afternoon by student activists, who were furious about the university’s decision to call in the police to clear an encampment used to protest the Israel-Hamas war.

If university officials thought that getting rid of the encampment, or arresting more than 100 protesters, would persuade students to give up, they may have been very wrong.

By Thursday night, the tents had disappeared. But scores of students took over a campus lawn. Planning to stay all night, they were in a rather upbeat mood, noshing on donated pizza and snacks. An impromptu dance party had even broken out.

As protests go, the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” was quite benign. There may have been the usual chanting reflecting the deepest thoughts of Columbia students, but there was no violence or destruction. It may have been against the rules, but the rules at the campus were remarkably squishy, giving students no particular reason to believe this time Columbia was really, really serious about enforcing them.

But mostly, this was the end-product of acquiescing, if not fostering, the belief that student activism was a “higher calling” than compliance with campus rules. Jewish students at Columbia have good reason to be fearful on campus, and much of the protest has been antisemitism, sometimes masked by claims that it’s just anti-Zionism or anti-Israel, and sometimes flagrant.

There is no question that in recent months there have been incidents of blatant, unacceptable antisemitism at Columbia: a swastika was graffitied in a campus bathroom, and an Israeli student hanging up posters of hostages was assaulted. And as at many other schools, some at Columbia have celebrated terrorism; in an ugly Oct. 8 essay repeatedly cited at the hearings, Massad, the anti-Zionist professor, wrote of “jubilation and awe” occasioned by the “innovative Palestinian resistance” of Oct. 7.

But having indulged this conduct up to now, Shafik isn’t going to stop it by calling in the cops to arrest the protesters, who are only doing what they’ve been taught to do. And now that Shafik has used police with batons to poke the bear, the disruption of education at Columbia will only get worse.

In an interview with Spectator, CCSC Vice President of Campus Life Anand Chitnis, CC ’25, said that he holds “such strong contempt” for Shafik’s statement, which said that the protest “severely disrupts campus life.”

“Protest and discourse on this campus is the reason I came here, the reason I run for this role, it’s everything that I try to protect in everything I do,” Chitnis said. “And so the idea that she believes that bringing NYPD on campus helps that campus life is heartbreaking, is disheartening, I literally left class sobbing because I was like ‘I cannot believe I go a University where this is the primary value that is being held over everything else.’”

Whether there is any way to restore calm to the university campus so students, all students, can return to their classrooms without fear or disruption at this point is unclear, but what is clear is that when you create the environment where protest is the “primary value that is being held over everything else,” calling in the cops is not going to solve anything.

Edit: Never forget?

Heard outside Columbia University last night: "Never forget the 7th of October. That will happen not 1 more time, not 5 more times, not 10, not 100, not 1,000, but 10,000 times! The 7th of October is going to be every day for you" pic.twitter.com/7rYJTwlz4x

— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) April 19, 2024