A letter calling for the academic boycott of Columbia is circulating among students, faculty, and staff at a number of colleges and universities, advocating for more signatories. 

On Thursday, March 27, Bwog received a letter calling for the boycott of Columbia University, signed by faculty, staff, and students from colleges and universities around the world. According to the letter, this boycott represents their commitment to standing “in solidarity with students, faculty, and staff targeted by the U.S. government and university administration for their principled opposition to the genocide in Gaza and support for Palestinian liberation.” As of the evening of March 27, the letter has 1,441 signatures from individuals across 29 institutions worldwide and includes a form for others to sign. Notable signatories include City University of New York Professor and author Marc Lamont Hill and Rutgers University professor and Palestinian-American activist Noura Erakat, among others.

The letter condemns Columbia’s “repeated failure to defend and protect” students targeted by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), such as Mahmoud Khalil and Ranjani Srinivasan. Additionally, the signatories express how “appalled” they are at the University’s disciplinary actions—suspensions, expulsions, and the revocation of degrees—towards students participating in pro-Palestininan protests. They also highlight the recent expulsion and firing of Grant Miner, the president of the Student Workers of Columbia-United Auto Workers union. 

The statement critiques Columbia for its “authoritarian suppression of its students by fully capitulating to the conditions imposed by the Trump administration for the release of $400 million in grants withdrawn on March 7, and that it did so against the warning issued by Constitutional law scholars.”

The signatories of the letter recommit to the terms of the first boycott, which occurred in April 2024 after the “violent removal” of students from the Gaza Solidarity Encampment. Three terms are listed in both the 2024 boycott, as well as the updated letter now circulating. Those signing the letter “will not participate in academic or other cultural events held at or officially sponsored by Columbia University or Barnard College” and “ will not collaborate with Columbia or Barnard faculty who hold positions within the university administration.” Further, the letter states that “some signatories may further engage in common sense boycotts of individual faculty based on their complicity with Columbia and Barnard’s repression” or publications affiliated with the University.

This boycott addresses the ongoing tensions between academic institutions and student activism, reflecting the debates about freedom of speech and school policies and calling “on all universities to be a sanctuary” for students. It concludes by stating that schools “cannot pretend to hold higher education sacred while repressing students and faculty, undermining free speech and academic freedom, and prohibiting dissent.” 

“Boycott Columbia Now” Letter sent to Bwog on Thursday, March 27:

We, the undersigned, commit to a boycott of Columbia University in solidarity with students, faculty, and staff targeted by the U.S. Government and university administration for their principled opposition to the genocide in Gaza and support for Palestinian liberation. By violating its ethical and professional duty towards its community and abdicating its responsibility to uphold and support free speech and academic freedom, Columbia has participated in an authoritarian assault on universities aimed at destroying their role as sites of teaching, research, learning, and activism essential to building a free and fair world.

We are appalled by Columbia’s repeated failure to defend and protect Mahmoud Khalil, and their handing over of his and other students’ disciplinary records. We are appalled that Columbia disenrolled Ranjani Srinivasan when her student visa was revoked, again simply for engaging in protected speech.

We are appalled that Columbia suspended, expelled, and revoked the degrees of students for their principled protests of an ongoing genocide and that they expelled and fired Grant Miner, president of UAW Local 2710, the union that represents thousands of student workers at Columbia, on the eve of contract negotiations. We join the American Association of University Professors in condemning these acts as the “sacrifice [of] students to the demands of an authoritarian government.”

We are appalled that Columbia’s leadership has colluded with the authoritarian suppression of its students by fully capitulating to the conditions imposed by the Trump administration for the release of $400 million in grants withdrawn on March 7, and that it did so against the warning issued by Constitutional law scholars that this course of action “creates a dangerous precedent for every recipient of federal financial assistance.” For over a year before being presented with this extortionist set of demands, Columbia targeted and criminalized its students. Now it has also agreed to impose the IHRA definition of antisemitism and a mask ban, specifically intended to target student protestors. It also took advantage of the opportunity to widen the scope of area studies departments placed under review and, in direct opposition to calls to divest from Israeli institutions, to reinvest in the Tel Aviv Global Center.

Columbia’s actions endanger all students, staff, and faculty. These are concerted attacks on the integrity of higher education and on our ability to conduct research, teach, and learn. These attacks are fueled by anti-Palestinian racism and enabled by the dangerous weaponization of antisemitism.They expose classrooms, dorms, labs, and other common spaces to the surveillance and predation of a federal government that has declared war on higher education.

We call on Columbia University to reinstate disenrolled, suspended, and expelled students, and reverse all changes made in compliance with the Trump administration’s harmful and illegitimate demands. Until this happens, we (re)commit to the following terms of the Columbia University boycott, originally called in April 2024 in response to the violent removal of students encamped against the genocide in Gaza:

1. We will not participate in academic or other cultural events held at or officially sponsored by Columbia University or Barnard College. This includes, but is not limited to, workshops, conferences, talks, screenings, and invited lectures. Signatories will use their discretion when it comes to solidarity events, and particularly with programs and people that are under direct attack from the administration.

2. We will not collaborate with Columbia or Barnard faculty who hold positions within the university administration in addition to their academic appointments. This includes but is not limited to: invitations to academic events at our universities; collaboration on any new grants and workshops; co-authorship of papers.

3. Some signatories may further engage in common sense boycotts of individual faculty based on their complicity with Columbia and Barnard’s repression. Likewise, some signatories may engage in common sense boycotts of publications affiliated with Columbia University.

Universities cannot pretend to hold higher education sacred while repressing students and faculty, undermining free speech and academic freedom, and prohibiting dissent. Every such act of craven suppression and compliance only further undermines the university and emboldens the reactionary forces intent on destroying it. We call on our universities to be a sanctuary for our students, and a space of unqualified academic freedom, rather than an enforcement arm of an authoritarian state. 

Bullies are never stopped by acquiescence. Never has it been more urgent to dissent and stand with our students, for our profession, and for democracy and social justice.

Columbia via Bwog Archives