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☆ Columbia Tells Protesters to Clear Out Encampment or Face Suspension
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-29 | by ( Sharon Otterman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Columbia University has given students until 2 p.m. on Monday to clear out from the pro-Palestinian encampment that has occupied a central lawn on its campus for nearly two weeks, warning them that they will face immediate suspension if they do not leave by then. Students in the encampment on Monday morning received a notice from administrators stating that negotiations with student protest leaders were at an impasse. It urged the students to clear out voluntarily to allow the school to prepare the lawn for graduation ceremonies on May 15. “The current unauthorized encampment and disruption on Columbia University’s campus is creating an unwelcoming environment for members of our community,” the notice stated. “Please promptly gather your belongings and leave the encampment.”

Persons: “ Organizations: Columbia University, Police Department, Columbia Locations: Columbia

☆ Inside the Week That Shook Columbia University
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-23 | by ( Nicholas Fandos | Sharon Otterman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Just after 2 p.m. last Wednesday, Nemat Shafik, the president of Columbia University, stepped out of an office building on Capitol Hill and into an idling black SUV. She had just endured an intense grilling by a congressional committee investigating antisemitism on elite college campuses. For a university trying to reassure Congress that it was getting its campus under control, the timing could scarcely have been worse. The secretive deliberations that followed over 24 frantic hours have sent Columbia into a crisis over free speech and safety unlike any the campus has seen since 1968. The events also set off a chain reaction rattling campuses across the country, just as one of the most trying academic years in memory neared its end.

Persons: Nemat Shafik, Shafik Organizations: Columbia University, Palestinian Locations: Columbia

Some students wore kaffiyehs, the traditional Palestinian scarf, while others wore Jewish skullcaps. They distributed handmade Haggadahs — prayer books for the Passover holiday — and read prayers in Hebrew, keeping to the traditional order. But there were also there were changes and additions, like a watermelon on the Seder plate to represent the flag of Palestine. There were repeated references to the suffering of the Palestinian people and the need to ensure their liberation. There was grape juice instead of wine to respect the alcohol-free encampment, which was started last Wednesday and, despite a police crackdown last week, was stretching into its sixth day.

Organizations: Columbia Locations: Palestine

☆ Live Updates: Yale Students Arrested as Campus Chaos Spreads
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-22 | by ( Alan Blinder | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +11 min

Some reportedly shouted at Jewish students and made antisemitic statements. Still, some Jewish students who are supporting the pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus said they felt solidarity, not a sense of danger, even as they denounced the acts of antisemitism. Image Grant Miner, a Jewish graduate student at Columbia University, says he doesn’t feel unsafe on campus. Jewish students get harassed trying to leave @Columbia’s campus tonight. Image At the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” on the Columbia campus, tents were crowded together Sunday night.

Persons: Eric Adams, ” Andrew Bates, Nemat Shafik, Minouche, “ Al, Adams, Grant Miner, Bing Guan, New York Times “, “, U2Ii5GTuLm — David lederer, @Davidlederer6, ”, Eliana Goldin, Aryeh, . Goldin, Samantha Slater, Shafik, Mr, Miner, ” Makayla, Gubbay, —, “ There’s, ” Ms, Elie Buechler, Rabbi Buechler, Hillel, ” Brian Cohen, Noah Levine, “ I’m, Xavier Westergaard, Sharon Otterman Organizations: Columbia, Jewish, White, New, ”, Columbia University, Credit, New York Times, Palestinian, Israel, University, New York Police Department, Barnard College, Gaza Solidarity, New York Times Students, Ivy League, Campus, “, Hillel, Broadway, Jewish Voice, Peace Locations: Upper Manhattan, New York City, American, Israel, Columbia, Poland, @Columbia’s, Europe, Chabad, Gaza, Palestine, Amsterdam

☆ Student Protesters at Columbia Remain Defiant
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-19 | by ( Sharon Otterman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Dozens of student protesters at Columbia University gathered outside early Friday afternoon, just across from where their tent encampment had been demolished by university officials the day before. Some students had been there through the night. Others, including a few who had been arrested Thursday, had only recently arrived. “You are erasing the line between education and politics,” he told them. “It is a new phase in this mobilization.”A day after Columbia’s president, Nemat Shafik, called in the police to arrest some 100 students and take down their encampment, the activists showed little sign of losing steam.

Persons: Mahmood Mamdani, ”, Nemat Shafik Organizations: Columbia University Locations: Gaza

☆ Columbia Sends In the N.Y.P.D. to Arrest Protesters in Tent City
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-18 | by ( Sharon Otterman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For about a day and a half, pro-Palestinian activists at Columbia University set up what they called a “Liberated Zone,” a temporary community with the spirit and values they wished existed on campus always. It was an impromptu tent village, with more than 50 tents, pitched on a large green lawn just outside the school’s imposing main library. It had a gathering area under a white awning heaped with supplies donated by fellow students. A red spray-painted sign announced its name: “Gaza Solidarity Encampment.”For those hours, living and gathering in the encampment felt purposeful and important, the activists said. Hundreds of students marched around the encampment to show support.

Persons: ”, Maryam Alwan Organizations: Columbia University, Gaza Solidarity Locations: Gaza

☆ Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Daughter Suspended for Involvement in Columbia Protest
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-18 | by ( Sharon Otterman | Anna Betts | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Isra Hirsi, the daughter of Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, is among several Barnard students who have been suspended for participating in a pro-Palestinian encampment at Columbia University. The camp, which includes dozens of tents pitched on the campus’s South Lawn in protest against Israeli actions in Gaza, has created a standoff between administrators and students on the Ivy League campus. Ms. Hirsi posted on social media around 11:30 a.m. on Thursday that she was one of three students suspended so far for participating in the protest, which began on Wednesday, the day the university’s president, Nemat Shafik, appeared before Congress to discuss antisemitism on campus. At the congressional hearing, Dr. Shafik told lawmakers that she would enforce rules about unauthorized protests and antisemitism. Ms. Omar, who is on the committee that held the hearing and who did not mention that her daughter was among the pro-Palestinian protesters, was one of several Democrats who questioned Ms. Shafik about her actions toward Palestinian and Muslim students.

Persons: Isra Hirsi, Ilhan Omar, Barnard, Hirsi, Nemat Shafik, Shafik, Omar Organizations: Columbia University, Ivy League Locations: Minnesota, Gaza

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New York University and Brown University have recently taken swift and decisive action against student protesters, including making arrests. And on Thursday, Columbia University hit its limit with student protesters who had set up dozens of tents on campus, sending in the New York Police Department to make arrests. Image At Columbia, officials cracked down on students who had erected tents on campus. Muncy for The New York TimesImage The New York Police Department arrested protesters at Columbia University. “But now we’re seeing that as an immediate response.”In her congressional testimony, Dr. Shafik revealed that 15 Columbia students have been suspended in recent weeks.

Persons: “, Santa J, Ono, ”, Nemat Shafik, Recalibrating, Rosy Fitzgerald, didn’t, Shafik, Nicole Hester, Donald J, Daniel Diermeier, Vanderbilt, “ They’re, Diermeier, —, Tracy Arwari, Ms, Arwari, Suzanne Nossel, Nossel, Amanda Andrade, Rhoades, Ezri Tyler, Tyler, Dan Korobkin, Colleen Mastony, Jacob Mchangama, Mr, Mchangama Organizations: University of, University of Michigan, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology , New York University, Brown University, Columbia University, New York Police Department, Columbia, Credit, The New York Times, Columbia University . Credit, The New York Times College, Republican, Institute for Middle, Vanderbilt, USA, Network Vanderbilt University, Pomona College, School, Pomona, PEN America, The New York Times Students, “, American Civil Liberties Union, ” Locations: Santa, Massachusetts Institute of Technology ,, Columbia, C.S, Muncy, Israel, Vietnam, Southern California, Pomona, “, Michigan, . Michigan

☆ Protests Intensify at Columbia, Forcing Difficult Choices for Leaders
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-18 | by ( Sharon Otterman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For a second day, pro-Palestinian students at Columbia University on Thursday directly challenged the vow that their administrators made during a high-stakes congressional committee hearing to crack down on unauthorized student protests as part of the university’s fight against antisemitism. The students have set up dozens of tents on the South Lawn of the campus, in front of the iconic Butler Library. They have also set up a makeshift kitchen, and held a teach-in and a film screening. And though Columbia administrators have closed the campus’s gates to outsiders, hundreds of students and others rallied with the protesters inside and outside of the school, overnight and through the morning. The escalation is a sharp challenge to Columbia’s president, Nemat Shafik, who largely conceded in a hearing before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on Wednesday that she felt some of the common chants at pro-Palestinian protests were antisemitic.

Persons: it’s, ”, Maryam Alwan, Nemat Shafik Organizations: Columbia University, Butler, Education Locations: Columbia

☆ Live Updates: Columbia’s President to Testify in Antisemitism Hearing
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-17 | by ( Sharon Otterman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

From left, Claudine Gay, president of Harvard University; M. Elizabeth Magill, president of Penn; Pamela Nadell, a professor at American University; and Sally Kornbluth, president of M.I.T., at a congressional hearing in December. When Nemat Shafik, the president of Columbia University, was asked to appear before Congress to testify about antisemitism on college campuses in December, she cited a scheduling conflict and said she could not attend. The president of the University of Pennsylvania, M. Elizabeth Magill, resigned four days after her appearance at the hearing, where she delivered evasive answers about campus antisemitism. Harvard’s president, Claudine Gay, similarly gave vague responses and faced fierce backlash for weeks up to her resignation in January. Lawyers who prepare clients to testify before Congress said that while there are risks to not appearing, it is always an option.

Persons: Claudine Gay, Elizabeth Magill, Penn, Pamela Nadell, Sally Kornbluth, Nemat Shafik, Shafik, Minouche, Christopher Armstrong, “, you’re, ”, it’s, ” Mr, Armstrong, There’s, Emily Loeb, Block, ” Sharon Otterman Organizations: Harvard University, American University, Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Education, Workforce, United Nations, Change, Lawyers, Holland, Knight, Jenner Locations: Dubai

☆ In Congress, Columbia’s Leaders Try to Please. At Home, They Face Anger.
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-17 | by ( Sharon Otterman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Representative Elise Stefanik leaned into the microphone and volleyed a series of questions at the university president sitting in front of her. It was about three hours into a congressional hearing examining antisemitism at Columbia University, and the president, Nemat Shafik, paused, sighed and gave a nervous laugh. “I think that would be — I think, I would, yes. Republican lawmakers on the House Committee on Education and the Work Force had come ready to pounce. They tested for weaknesses and prodded vulnerabilities, while their witnesses, a group of Columbia leaders, seemed conciliatory.

Persons: Elise Stefanik, Nemat Shafik, sighed, Stefanik, Shafik, “, ” Organizations: Columbia University, Republican, Education, Work Force, Columbia

The president of Columbia said the university had suspended 15 students. She promised that one visiting professor “will never work at Columbia again.”And when she was grilled over whether she would remove another professor from his leadership position, she appeared to make a decision right there on Capitol Hill: “I think I would, yes.”The president, Nemat Shafik, disclosed the disciplinary details, which are usually confidential, as part of an all-out effort on Wednesday to persuade a House committee investigating Columbia that she was taking serious action to combat a wave of antisemitism following the Israel-Hamas war. In nearly four hours of testimony before the Republican-led Committee on Education and the Workforce, Dr. Shafik conceded that Columbia had initially been overwhelmed by an outbreak of campus protests. But she said its leaders now agreed that some had used antisemitic language and that certain contested phrases — like “from the river to the sea” — might warrant discipline.

Persons: “, Nemat Shafik, Shafik Organizations: Columbia, Republican, Education, Workforce Locations: Israel

☆ Columbia President Is Next to Be Grilled About Antisemitism by Congress
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-16 | by ( Sharon Otterman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Four months after an explosive congressional hearing on antisemitism precipitated the resignations of two Ivy League presidents, another university president is about to step to the hot seat. On Wednesday, Columbia’s president, Nemat Shafik, will testify about antisemitism before the same House committee that grilled the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The December hearing was a political showcase for Elise Stefanik, a New York lawmaker who is the No. Afterward, Ms. Stefanik counted the resignations of the president of the University of Pennsylvania, M. Elizabeth Magill, and Claudine Gay, the president of Harvard, as personal wins. “I will always deliver results,” Ms. Stefanik, a Harvard alumna and a prospective vice-presidential pick for Donald Trump, said after Dr. Gay’s resignation.

Persons: Nemat Shafik, lawyerly, Elise Stefanik, Ms, Stefanik, Elizabeth Magill, Claudine Gay, “, ” Ms, Donald Trump, Gay’s Organizations: Ivy League, University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New, Republican Locations: New York

☆ Opinion | How to Fix the Crisis of Trust in Higher Education
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-06 | by ( Jessica Grose | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been keeping track of every report I see about major budget shortfalls at universities. Here’s a sampling:“SUNY Warns of Future $1B Deficit Without Higher Tuition or More Aid” — The Times Union, Jan. 2. “Penn State Plans Nearly $100M in Cuts for FY26 Budget” — Higher Ed Dive, Jan. 24. “As U. of Arizona Confronts Budget Cuts, Workers and Students Brace for the Worst” — The New York Times, Feb. 21. The other is the decline in Americans’ confidence in higher education.

Persons: I’ve, Brace, Sharon Otterman, Josh Moody, Ed Organizations: The Times Union, UConn, Connecticut, “ Penn, Workers, New York Times, Gallup Locations: Arizona, New York

☆ College Dorm Decorations Become a Front in the Campus Free Speech Wars
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-01 | by ( Sharon Otterman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Dorm door decorations are emerging as the next battleground in the fight over academic freedom and free speech at Barnard College. As at many schools, Barnard students often use their dorm doors to display a bit of personality. “Zionism is terrorism,” one student’s door sticker said. Concerned that some students might feel intimidated by such messages, the Barnard administration has decided to enforce a ban on dorm door decorations altogether. Their removal was set to begin on Thursday, and all but “official items placed by the college” will be taken down, Leslie Grinage, the dean of the college, wrote in an email to students.

Persons: Barnard, “, Leslie Grinage Organizations: Barnard College Locations: Gaza

☆ Columbia Limited Campus Protests, So Students Took to the Streets
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-06 | by ( Sharon Otterman | Olivia Bensimon | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The steps in front of Low Memorial Library at Columbia University have been the site of major campus protests since the 1960s. When the students instead joined a rally on the streets outside of campus the next day, they were greeted by rows of police officers. Since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, Columbia has been under intense pressure to rein in pro-Palestinian protests that accuse Israel of genocide and call for a cease-fire. The protests have not been violent, but some donors, trustees and students say they reflect and foment antisemitism. In response, Columbia and Barnard, the university’s sister school, have sought to enforce rules requiring extensive advance notice and barring anything that might disrupt campus activities.

Persons: Israel Organizations: Low, Library, Columbia University, Barnard Locations: Israel, Columbia, Vietnam

Vassar College, one of the first institutions of higher learning for women in the United States, prides itself for being a pioneer in women’s education and deeply committed to equality between the sexes. And yet, Vassar, a liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, N. Y., where tuition this year is $67,000, has systematically paid its female professors less than their male counterparts for the past two decades, according to a recent federal lawsuit. The suit, filed last month by five former or current tenured faculty members, has roiled the left-leaning campus with allegations of unequal pay, delayed promotions for female professors and a discriminatory performance-evaluation system. Hundreds of students rallied outside a faculty meeting last week to demand that female professors be paid the same as men. On a campus where the promise of gender equality is a draw for students seeking a college culture steeped in diversity and equity, many students interviewed said the issues raised by the suit had left them feeling betrayed.

Organizations: Vassar College Locations: United States, Poughkeepsie

☆ His Job Helping Drug Users Is Illegal. He Says He Does It to Save Lives.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-28 | by ( Sharon Otterman | More About Sharon Otterman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

On the blocks around OnPoint at Park Avenue and 126th Street, a concentration of drug treatment programs, drug users and drug dealers lead to use that can be remarkably out in the open. While OnPoint didn’t bring the drug activity to the block, some insist it has made things worse. “So would you rather it be here or somewhere else?”This is how Mr. Ortiz sees his job. He does it, he said, because he still remembers a day during EMT training when his ambulance got a call about an overdose in Central Park. An exact location wasn’t provided, making the response difficult, and when the ambulance arrived at the park, none of the workers got out to begin the search.

Persons: OnPoint didn’t, you’re, ” Ms, Baker, “ We’re, ”, Ann, Ortiz Locations: OnPoint, Central Park

☆ Finally, Bill de Blasio Wins New Yorkers’ Praise. For His Breakup.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-14 | by ( Sharon Otterman | More About Sharon Otterman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

As a two-term Democratic mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio earned mixed reviews, at best. But now that he’s out office, he’s getting raves for the way he is handling an unexpected development: his separation from his wife and the transformation of their marriage. It was an unexpected moment of both transparency and ambiguity that transfixed many New Yorkers. The couple did not plan to divorce, they said, though they didn’t rule it out. And it was, in its emotional risk taking, somehow very New York.

Persons: Bill de Blasio, he’s, de Blasio, Chirlane McCray, implosions, — Organizations: The Locations: New York City, The Times, New York

☆ With Mpox at Risk of Flaring, Health Officials Advise, ‘Get Vaccinated’
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( Sharon Otterman | Liam Stack | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Late last year, with cases at a trickle, New York City wound down its mpox emergency response. Health officials stopped posting updates about cases. Since peaking in the city late last July at almost 100 cases a day, the disease has continued to circulate at much lower levels. Health officials stopped posting case information on the city’s website at the end of last year. The health department said there had been at least 39 mpox cases in New York so far this year, including 20 in January and two in the past month.

☆ A Movement to Make Workplaces ‘Menopause Friendly’
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Sharon Otterman | Yana Paskova | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A new movement to create “menopause-friendly workplaces” is catching on, beginning in Britain, where menopausal women are believed to be the fastest growing work force demographic. More than 50 British organizations, including HSBC UK, Unilever UK, and the soccer club West Ham United, are now are certified as “menopause-friendly” though an accreditation developed by Henpicked: Menopause in the Workplace, a British professional training firm. One recent poll estimated that three in 10 workplaces in Britain now have some kind of menopause policy in place. There is even an awards ceremony, held in London, for the most menopause-friendly companies. New York City Mayor Eric Adams promised earlier this year “to change the stigma around menopause in this city,” and to “create more menopause-friendly workplaces for our city workers through improving policies and our buildings.”

☆ What Does the End of the Covid Health Emergency Mean for New York City?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Sharon Otterman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The official end of the nation’s Covid public health emergency on Thursday means that the country will begin to treat Covid-19 like any other transmissible disease, meaning the end of federal funds for free testing and treatment for all. In New York City, the rollback of the public health response has been underway for months. The city will keep distributing free home tests at libraries and other locations until its supply from the federal government runs out. The city’s public hospitals and clinics will continue indefinitely to provide low-cost or free care to the estimated 200,000 uninsured people in the city, as it does for other illnesses. “Covid-related health care is going to start looking a lot more like all the other health care we receive, which involves health insurance for people who have it, and turning to our safety-net health care system for people who don’t,” said Rima Oken, director of policy for the New York City Health Department’s disease control division, at a panel hosted last week by the Pandemic Response Institute.

☆ 900,000 New Yorkers Lost at Least 3 Loved Ones to Covid
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Sharon Otterman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Josefa Santana, 96, did not leave her Washington Heights apartment when New York City shut down to slow the spread of the coronavirus in March 2020. He was the only one to leave the apartment in those weeks, so he probably was the one who brought the virus in. Despite her family’s efforts to protect her, Ms. Santana got sick, and then died. She was one of three relatives whom her granddaughter, Lymarie Francisco, lost to Covid-19 in the first year of the pandemic, Ms. Francisco said last week. Nearly 900,000 New Yorkers lost at least three people they said they were close to, an open-ended category that included relatives and friends, the survey found.

☆ A Hurricane-Resistant Hospital Is Coming to Coney Island
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Sharon Otterman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

New York City is about to cut the ribbon on a new $923 million public hospital building, not far from the beach in Coney Island, that is designed to be practically flood-proof and that promises to elevate the level of health care for hundreds of thousands of people in South Brooklyn. The new Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hospital building, which opens Tuesday, was born out of a crisis. During Hurricane Sandy in 2012, Coney Island Hospital, the former name of the campus where the new building is, flooded. When it came time to restore the facility, city hospital leaders convinced the Federal Emergency Management Agency that constructing a new building would cost the same as repairing and retrofitting the old one. With nearly $1 billion from the agency, the city’s public hospital system was able to construct a fortress, designed to withstand even a once-in-a-century flood.

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