Barnard Organization of Soul and Solidarity (BOSS), Columbia Black Students’ Organization (BSO), Columbia Caribbean Students’ Association (CSA), and Columbia African Students’ Association (ASA) recently released a joint statement following the administration’s decision to employ police force in the removal of the Gaza Solidarity Encampment and Hamilton Hall occupation.

Four Black student organizations—Barnard Organization of Soul and Solidarity (BOSS), Columbia Black Students’ Organization (BSO), Columbia Caribbean Students’ Association (CSA), and Columbia African Students’ Association (ASA)—have released a joint statement condemning the use of police force on pro-Palestinian protestors and expressing solidarity with the Gaza Solidarity Encampment. 

The statement begins by stating their positions as “historic activist organizations” with values that center the empowerment of marginalized groups, leading them to condemn Columbia’s investment in Israeli companies that “enabl[es] the Israeli apartheid regime.” They also denounce Columbia President Shafik’s decision to bring the NYPD onto campus on the evening of April 30, the second time in two weeks, and her subsequent email thanking them for their “incredible professionalism and support.”

President Shafik’s actions, the organizations state, have demonstrated “callous disregard for our [students’] safety and well-being,” thereby evidencing that her “true allegiance lies with the oppressive forces of the state and the racist institutions of policing, not with the students you [Shafik] claim[s] to represent.” This has led to “irreparable damage to student approval and trust in this administration,” calling for President Shafik’s resignation and a change in the administration which should commit to listening to students’ demands, particularly those of CUAD, and “protecting the human rights of Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, Black and Brown people.”

Moreover, the statement calls for the resignation of Barnard President Rosenbury after “imposing oppressive policies, refusing to engage with student leaders, and denying students due process in disciplinary hearings,” all of which, they argue, represent a betrayal of Barnard’s core values, including those of academic freedom, freedom of expression, and activism. The signatories demand the institution to provide support to students impacted by NYPD presence on campus, particularly Palestinian students, through material resources, counseling services, safe spaces, and a “comprehensive review of college policies to identify and rectify any discriminatory practices.”

In addition to both presidents’ resignations, the organizations urge Columbia to “divest from Israeli apartheid and the subsequent Palestinian genocide completely,” expressing their support to students in SJP, JVP, and CUAD as well as other student organizations with these same demands. 

The statement condemns “the administration’s attacks on students, especially our Black peers,” which they define as “distinctly racialized,” further demanding “full amnesty and reinstatement for all unjustly suspended and evicted students” as well as the removal of NYPD presence. They refer to Columbia’s larger role in Harlem, drawing attention to “Columbia’s ongoing complicity in the destruction of this sacred Black space” through its “expansion and gentrification.” Additionally, they refer to Columbia’s institutional history, arguing that “by brutally cracking down on peaceful pro-Palestinian protesters, our administration has made it abundantly clear that it is all too willing to resort to the same tactics of force, coercion, and silencing that have been used to maintain the status quo of oppression for centuries.”

The signatories end their statement by urging the Barnard and Columbia community to “join [them] in the ongoing fight against oppression on campus and beyond,” and stand with them in the call for these demands. “When Palestine is free, and Columbia inevitably boasts of your activist struggles, please remember this moment,” they assert. 

The statement in full can be read below. 

Joint BOSS, BSO, CSA, and ASA Statement: 

Dear fellow students, faculty, staff, administrators, and members of the Barnard and Columbia community, 

We, the undersigned Black student organizations of Barnard College and Columbia University, forcefully condemn the unjust imprisonment and egregious police brutality exerted on peaceful pro-Palestinian protesters on our very own campus. We stand in complete solidarity with all participants in the Gaza Solidarity Encampments, their supporters, and all students speaking out against injustice. We further condemn Barnard College’s and Columbia University’s criminalization of peaceful protest, as well as their unwarranted choice of a complete campus lockdown, which deprives students, especially marginalized students, of access to our meal plans, mental health services, and other necessary resources. 

First and foremost, we condemn all forms of hatred directed towards any individual or any group of people. As historic activist organizations, we center the liberation, solidarity, and empowerment of marginalized peoples worldwide. It is in keeping with these core values that we denounce in the strongest possible terms Columbia University’s financial involvement in the ongoing Palestinian genocide through investments in companies enabling the Israeli apartheid regime. 

On Tuesday, April 30, for the second time in less than two weeks, hundreds of personnel from the Israeli-trained New York Police Department were invited to our campus to arrest our students with consent from President Minouche Shafik. These police officers forced students, press, and medics off of campus in order to brutalize student protesters and forcefully remove them from in and around Hind’s Hall. We, along with many others in our student body, were mortified to see police officers brutalize our peers in the place where we live and study. Furthermore, we were disgusted to see communication from President Shafik the following morning thanking the N.Y.P.D. for “their incredible professionalism and support.” 

President Shafik, your actions have made it abundantly clear that you do not serve the interests of your students. By inviting the N.Y.P.D. onto our campus to assault and traumatize peaceful student protesters, you have shown a callous disregard for our safety and well-being. How can you claim to be acting in our support when you stand idly by as police use stun grenades and billy clubs against us, barricade us in our own buildings, and physically assault us on the very steps of our university? Your twisted definition of “safety” leaves us more vulnerable and afraid than ever before. It is painfully evident that your true allegiance lies with the oppressive forces of the state and the racist institutions of policing, not with the students you claim to represent. As you write to us as students, underlining the need to “heal” and “restore calm” as a community, know that your actions have caused irreparable damage to student approval and trust in this administration. As students concerned foremost with the well-being and liberation of our student body and not the financial interests of the Board of Trustees, we wholeheartedly condemn your actions. As such, President Nemat “Minouche” Shafik, we call for your immediate resignation. With this call for resignation, we simultaneously demand that Columbia’s administration be responsive to meeting the demands of student groups, especially those in Columbia University Apartheid Divest; hire senior administrators with cultural competency; and affirm their commitment to protecting the human rights of Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, Black and Brown people. 

To President Laura Rosenbury, you have proven yourself wholly unfit to lead Barnard College. You have betrayed the institution’s core values and eroded campus freedoms by imposing oppressive policies, refusing to engage with student leaders, and denying students due process in disciplinary hearings. President Rosenbury, your actions have made a mockery of Barnard’s supposed commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. By disproportionately targeting student activists, many of whom are of color and from first-generation and low-income backgrounds, for suspension and punishment, you have revealed your true priorities. Your eleventh-hour policy changes and steady erosion of campus freedoms—from banning door decorations to silencing free speech in the name of “safety”—directly oppose the values of academic freedom, open expression, and student activism that Barnard purports to champion. 

Under your failed leadership, the community has become traumatized, fractured, and fearful. As the president of a college dedicated to empowering young women, your fervent rejection of principles of academic freedom, free speech, and passionate activism is a disgrace. Therefore, we call for your immediate resignation. The Barnard community deserves a leader who will embody our values, support students, and repair the damage your administration has done. We demand that Barnard administrators provide material support and resources for students impacted by police violence, especially Palestinian students, increase mental health services and trauma-informed counseling, create safe spaces for Palestinian students and allies, and commit to a comprehensive review of college policies to identify and rectify any discriminatory practices. 

For too long, our institution has been complicit in the oppression of the Palestinian people through its investments in companies that support and enable the Israeli apartheid regime. By financially supporting this violent and murderous system, Columbia is directly contributing to the displacement, dispossession, and death of countless Palestinians. This is nothing short of a modern-day genocide, and it is a moral stain on our university. We echo the calls of our peers in Student Justice for Palestine (S.J.P.), Jewish Voices for Peace (J.V.P.), Columbia University Apartheid Divest (C.U.A.D.), and over 100 campus organizations urging Columbia to divest from Israeli apartheid and the subsequent Palestinian genocide completely. This is not a radical or fringe demand but a basic call for human rights and dignity. It is a demand supported by a growing number of students, faculty, and staff across both the Barnard and Columbia campuses and college students worldwide. We, the students, are the lifeblood of this institution, not the administration. It is time for our voices to be heard and for our values to be reflected in the actions of our university. 

We are disgusted by the administration’s attacks on students, especially our Black peers, for exercising their right to protest against apartheid and genocide peacefully. We demand full amnesty and reinstatement for all unjustly suspended and evicted students. This cruelty is distinctly racialized, with colonial undertones rendering Black and Brown students food and housing insecure with little notice. We call for the immediate removal of the disruptive, oppressive N.Y.P.D. presence destroying the well-being of Black students and the wider Columbia community altogether. 

We must also recognize that the police violence inflicted upon student protesters at Barnard and Columbia is an extension of the violence that these institutions have perpetrated against the Black community in Harlem for generations. Columbia’s expansion and gentrification have displaced countless Black residents, shattered community bonds, and eroded the sacred space of Black Harlem. The university’s willingness to summon the N.Y.P.D. to brutalize Black and Brown student activists mirrors its long history of calling upon the forces of the state to enact violence against the surrounding community. Just as police checkpoints at the City College of New York represent a daily assault on the people of Harlem, so too does Columbia’s crackdown on peaceful protest constitute an attack on the community as a whole. We stand in solidarity with our neighbors in Harlem and denounce Columbia’s ongoing complicity in the destruction of this sacred Black space. 

Many of our organizations were born from struggle and resistance against institutional oppression, from BOSS emerging in 1968 amidst the civil rights, women’s rights, and anti-war movements to combat Barnard’s exclusion of Black students to B.S.O. rising from the 1968 protests to fight racial injustice and mobilizing against South African apartheid in the 1980s. We recognize that Black and Palestinian liberation are inextricably linked in the global fight against colonial violence and displacement, from Harlem to Haiti to South Africa. We will continue to organize as we have throughout history until all oppressed peoples are free. 

Let us not forget the dark and shameful history upon which our institution was built. Columbia University was constructed on a foundation of violence and oppression; its very existence was made possible through the forced labor of enslaved Africans and the violent theft of land from the Lenape people. This legacy of injustice and exploitation is not confined to the distant past; it continues to permeate every aspect of our community to this day. By brutally cracking down on peaceful pro-Palestinian protesters, our administration has made it abundantly clear that it is all too willing to resort to the same tactics of force, coercion, and silencing that have been used to maintain the status quo of oppression for centuries. This institution’s callous disregard for the lives and voices of marginalized people is not an aberration but a continuation of the foundational violence upon which it was built. 

In the face of this ongoing injustice, we refuse to be silent or complicit. We will not stand idly by while our classmates and comrades are brutalized and humiliated for speaking truth to power. And we will not accept an administration that treats its own students as if they are something other than full members of this community, deserving of respect and basic human dignity. Columbia students should be free to express their beliefs and engage in peaceful protest without fear of retaliation or punishment. Instead, they are being jailed, suspended, and thrown out of their homes, all for the crime of having a conscience. This is an outrage, and it cannot be allowed to stand. 

So today, we say to the administration of Barnard and Columbia: enough is enough. We will no longer tolerate your complicity in oppression and injustice, both on this campus and around the world. We demand that you immediately divest from Israeli apartheid and the genocide of the Palestinian people. We demand that you drop all charges against our fellow students who are peacefully protesting, as well as the reinstatement of those who have been unjustly suspended or evicted. We call for the immediate removal of the disruptive and oppressive N.Y.P.D. presence on campus, which is currently destroying the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of students of color. It is time for you to truly embody and uphold the lofty principles you profess rather than merely offering hollow platitudes. Additionally, we implore the administration to provide meaningful support and take accountability for the harm they have caused to the greater Barnard and Columbia community. 

We, the undersigned Black student organizations, call upon the Barnard and Columbia community to heed our urgent demands for justice and solidarity. We ask that you amplify this statement, pressure the administration to meet our demands, and join us in the ongoing fight against oppression on campus and beyond. To our fellow students: stand with us in calling for Presidents Shafik and Rosenbury’s resignations, for full divestment from Israeli apartheid, for amnesty for student protesters, and for the removal of the violent N.Y.P.D. presence from our community. To our faculty and staff: use your voices and power to hold this institution accountable and demand change. And to our administrators: know that we will not rest until you address the harm you have caused and take concrete action to align this university’s practices with its stated values. The time is now. Palestine and our community are under attack. It is up to all of us to show up, fight back, and build a future of collective liberation. 

As the Black organizations of Barnard College and Columbia University, we know that the road to justice is long and that the liberation struggle is not easy. We understand that the arc of the moral universe is long, but we know that it bends towards justice, in the words of Dr. King. We are part of a proud tradition of resistance and solidarity in the face of oppression. So let us go forward from this day with renewed commitment and determination, secure in the knowledge that our cause is just and that history will absolve us. To our fellow classmates and peaceful protesters, when Palestine is free, and Columbia inevitably boasts of your activist struggles, please remember this moment. 

In solidarity and struggle, 

Barnard Organization of Soul and Solidarity, 

Columbia Black Students’ Organization, 

Columbia Caribbean Students’ Association, 

and Columbia African Students’ Association 

Header via Bwog Archives