Barnard College student takeover of campus building in Gaza protest turns violent, NYPD standing by

Cayla Bamberger, New York Daily News on Feb 26, 2025

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Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters assaulted an employee in a takeover of Milbank Hall at Barnard College late Wednesday as administrators warned additional steps may be needed to end the protest. The students are demanding the college reinstate two expelled students who disrupted an Israeli history class.

Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine began posting from the protest shortly after 4 p.m., as masked protesters chanted through megaphones and beat drums while calling on Barnard, an affiliate of Columbia University, to divest from Israel. The president’s office is located in the building.

A demand letter posted to X called for the “immediate reversal” of both expulsions and the “abolition of the corrupt Barnard disciplinary process.”

“We will not stop until our demands are met,” read the memo.

Robin Levine, a Barnard spokeswoman, said the protesters “forcibly entered” Milbank and assaulted a school employee, sending them to the hospital. If protesters do not agree to leave the building by 9:30 p.m., Levine said Barnard would be “forced to consider additional, necessary measures to protect our campus.”

“Barnard is a place of learning. Respect, inclusivity, and safety are nonnegotiable. Violence and intimidation have no place here,” Levine said.

“We have made multiple good-faith efforts to deescalate. Barnard leadership offered to meet with the protesters — just as we meet with all members of our community — on one simple condition: remove their masks. They refused.”

Levine added Barnard did not know if all protesters are students or otherwise affiliated with Barnard.

Columbia became the epicenter for campus protests last spring after former Columbia President Minouche Shafik’s decision to call the police launched a series of copycat, pro-Palestinian encampments across the country. The demonstrations came to a head in April when protesters occupied an academic building, Hamilton Hall, spurring another call to the NYPD.

Over the weekend, student protest groups announced the expulsion of the two Barnard seniors who disrupted the graduate-level class History of Modern Israel on Jan. 21. The students carried flyers of a storm trooper boot crushing a Star of David and calls to “Burn Zionism to the Ground,” photos and videos on social media show.

In addition to the expelled Barnard students, another student at Columbia was suspended. Columbia University Apartheid Divest said the expulsions were the first for any pro-Palestinian protest activity on campus.

In Wednesday’s takeover, the NYPD said they were present on public property to monitor the protest and remained nearby if requested by Barnard. A Barnard worker closed the entrance to Milbank, where the student life dean’s office is also located, shortly after protesters began to gather, according to student newspaper Columbia Spectator.

Protesters hung the Palestinian flag and vandalized the walls, photos show. A video posted by a coalition of the student groups, Columbia University Apartheid Divest, showed a Barnard classics professor trying to negotiate with the protesters.

“It’s weird for me to be here. But I’m also, I happen to be on the floor, so that’s why I’m here,” said the professor, who on behalf of Dean Leslie Grinage offered a meeting with a maximum of three students.

“She’s scared of us,” called out one protester.

“Yes, I would not dispute that,” the professor responded.

More than three hours after the takeover began, Grinage stepped out of her office and was met with chants by the protesters.

“Shame!,” they cried.

In a separate clip, a student shouted: “They’re asking if the dean can go to the bathroom.”

The crowd responded “no,” before changing their tune. Outside the dean’s office, protesters had scribbled “boot lickers” on the wall.

Barnard spokespeople did not immediately return a request for comment. In a statement, Columbia condemned the disruption as “not acceptable conduct” — but separated itself from the affiliated women’s college.

“Barnard College is a separate institution from Columbia University, although it is affiliated. Columbia is not responsible for security on Barnard’s campus,” read the unsigned statement.

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