Barnard College is facing fresh scrutiny after the anti-Israel students protesters involved in Wednesday’s unruly demonstration, which including occupying an administrative building and assaulting a Barnard employee who had to be hospitalized, were seemingly “let off the hook.” 

“This is why ED is already investigating Barnard’s parent school @Columbia for alleged persistent failures to protect Jewish students from harassment, intimidation, and violence,” the press secretary for the Education Department wrote on X. “Schools that enable civil rights violations will face consequences under the Trump Administration.” 

Congressman Ritchie Torres, who represents New York’s 15th congressional district, offered a similar decree: “A university that fails to hold violent agitators accountable should itself be held accountable.” 

During Wednesday’s demonstration, some 50 student agitators, masked and cloaked in keffiyehs, barged into Barnard’s Milbank Hall and squatted outside of the dean’s office. The disruption kicked off at 4:00 p.m. and was staged in protest of Barnard’s recent expulsion of two anti-Israel students who last month interrupted a History of Modern Israel course and handed out pro-terror fliers. 

Columbia’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, which organized the gathering at Milbank Hall, announced its demands on social media, calling on Barnard to reverse the student expulsions, drop all charges levied against anti-Israel student protestors, schedule a public meeting between anti-Israel group and the Barnard’s dean and president, and abolish Barnard’s “corrupt” disciplinary process. 

“DISRUPTION UNTIL DIVESTMENT, RESISTANCE UNTIL RETURN, AGITATION UNTIL AMNESTY,” the group proclaimed. “WE WILL NOT STOP UNTIL OUR DEMANDS ARE MET. FREE PALESTINE.” 

Videos of the incident shared online show the throng of students beating on drums, chanting on megaphones, and grafting the walls outside of Dean Leslie Grinage’s office. During the ordeal, one Barnard employee was taken to the hospital after being physically assaulted by students involved in the demonstration, according to Barnard’s communications spokesman, Robin Levine.

 The New York Police Department confirmed that they received a report for an assault in the vicinity of the protest. The 41-year-old man was taken to Mount Sinai Morningside Hospital in stable condition. The NYPD said that no arrests were made.

“They encouraged others to enter campus without identification, showing blatant disregard for the safety of our community,” Mr. Levine stated. “Violence and intimidation have no place here.” As the protest unfurled, classes that were scheduled to take place in the hall were relocated or canceled, the Spectator reported. 

After six hours of negotiation, the protestors dispersed at around 10:30 p.m. after they agreed to a meeting on Thursday afternoon between three student representatives and the school’s dean and president. Several Barnard faculty members were involved in mediating between the students and the administration. 

According to photos shared on Columbia’s student blog, Barnard distributed a notice to the protestors informing them that if students don’t “adhere to this final request” to disperse by 10:30 p.m. they would be subject to disciplinary action. However, “If you leave before that time, we will not pursue disciplinary action for your presence in the building.” 

Barnard’s president, Laura Ann Rosenbury, released a statement shortly after the students’ departure, criticizing the “small group of masked protestors” for attempting “to undermine Barnard’s core values of respect, inclusion, and academic excellence.” She thanked faculty members and staff for their help in drawing the protestors from Milbank Hall before adding that their “disregard for the safety of our community remains completely unacceptable.” 

However, members of Barnard and Columbia’s Jewish communities expressed frustration with Barnard’s response to the demonstration. A cohort of Columbia’s Jewish and Israeli students shared an image online showing the “aftermath” of the building takeover, which included “property damage, a security guard hospitalized, classes cancelled, and more work for facilities workers.” The elevator, they note, “had to be cordoned off” due to the damage, leaving the building “inaccessible.” And yet, “the students were let off the hook,” the group charged. 

An Israeli-American professor at Columbia, Shai Davidai, who has been an outspoken critic of the university’s handling of campus antisemitism, urged Barnard: “don’t negotiate with terrorist supporters.” He further organized a protest on Thursday afternoon outside of Barnard to “demand consequences” for the anti-Israel agitators. 

Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, who represents New York’s 21st congressional district, called for the student participants to be “immediately expelled and prosecuted by law enforcement,” she wrote on X on Thursday morning. “As President  @realDonaldTrump outlined in his executive order, any visa-holding student participating in these antisemitic acts must be stripped of their visa and be deported.”

Former American ambassador to Israel during the first Trump administration, David Friedman, called on the government to halt its student loan assistance to Barnard, which he described as “the poster child for lower education.” He wrote on X: No student loans should be guaranteed by the US Gov’t for this abject waste. And send the foreign students home!” 

By Thursday afternoon, however, Barnard contended that it made “no promises of amnesty” to the protestors, the Spectator reported. “The masked protesters left Milbank Hall after receiving final written notice and being informed that Barnard would be forced to consider additional necessary measures to protect the campus if they did not leave on their own,” Mr. Levine told the student newspaper. “No promises of amnesty were made, and no concessions were negotiated.”

Columbia, for its part, attempted to distance itself from the whole incident. In a statement released on Wednesday night, the New York City Ivy declared that “The disruption of academic activities is not acceptable conduct” before adding that Barnard is a “separate institution” from Columbia and that “Columbia is not responsible for security on Barnard’s campus.”