Columbia University has agreed to take additional steps to make its students feel secure on campus as part of a settlement reached Tuesday with a Jewish student who was seeking a court order requiring the Ivy League school to provide secure access to campus amid Israel war protests -Hamas.
The law firm representing the plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit called the settlement “a first-of-its-kind agreement to protect Jewish students from extreme protesters on campus in the Gaza Strip.”
Under the agreement, Columbia must create a up-to-date point of contact – a Safe and sound Transition Liaison – for students concerned about their safety. The liaison will address student safety issues and coordinate any student escort requests through the existing escort program, which is contractually required to be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week through at least December 31.
Among other things, the settlement provides academic accommodation for students who were unable to get to campus for assignments or exams.
“We are pleased to have reached a resolution and remain committed to our number one priority: keeping our campus secure so that all of our students can successfully pursue their studies and achieve their academic goals,” a university spokesman said in a written statement.
The settlement noted various steps Columbia had already taken to ensure student safety on campus, including some controversial ones such as allowing the Modern York Police Department to clear the university’s administration building and arresting more than 100 people.
The protests in Colombia, which included the creation of an encampment, inspired similar demonstrations at colleges and universities across the country, with students demanding that their schools be separated from companies supporting Israel’s military efforts in Gaza and, in some cases, from Israel itself.
A legal group representing pro-Palestinian students has called on the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights to investigate whether Columbia is complying with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 over the way they are treated.
Jay Edelson, an attorney for the Jewish student plaintiff, said the negotiated settlement represents “a return to the basic, shared principles of campus safety for all Columbia students” after “extreme protesters” decided to “push their Jewish peers off campus through threats and intimidation “
The agreement also states that Columbia “will continue to work to facilitate students’ and faculty’s ability to engage in secure, civil and constructive dialogue about critical issues raised in recent months” and will not interfere with student efforts to publicly share debate information on campus.
