Arrests were underway late Wednesday as the NYPD moved in to clear about 100 pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia University who took over Butler Library just days before final exams.
Several hours into the protest, Acting President Claire Shipman authorized the NYPD to enter campus, on top of a limited number of arrests made by campus security who have the power to take in students. Shortly after, police began clearing the library, coming out with more than 75 protesters in zip ties who they said were trespassing.
The university’s temporary leader — its third in as many years — attributed the decision to the large number of protesters, including a group trying to force their way into the library and people they suspect do not attend the school.
“Requesting the presence of the NYPD is not the outcome we wanted, but it was absolutely necessary to secure the safety of our community,” Shipman wrote.
Protesters injured two Columbia officers while trying to force their way into the building and the room of the demonstration, the college president said.
“Disruptions to our academic activities will not be tolerated and are violations of our rules and policies; this is especially unacceptable while our students study and prepare for final exams,” Shipman said. “Columbia strongly condemns violence on our campus, antisemitism and all forms of hate and discrimination, some of which we witnessed today.”
The main protest group on campus, Columbia University Apartheid Divest, reveled in their ability to pull off the disruption, despite a crackdown on student activists. Last month, an effort to repitch a tent encampment was averted after NBC News publicized their plans.
“Despite Columbia’s transformation of the university into a dystopian site of surveillance through its carceral expansion of cameras, wifi and ID tracking, externally contracted security, disciplinary processes, and arresting power for Public Safety officers, it still failed to quell the student movement. Students outsmarted the university, exposing the cracks in their broken system,” the group said in a statement.
“Students know that resisting genocide is their moral imperative, and history is on their side.”
Videos on social media showed the activists, who wore masks, pushing through security at the entrance of Butler, the main campus library, shortly after 3 p.m., steps away from where students pitched a tent demonstration last year. They played drums, and posted signs and stickers to free Mahmoud Khalil, a recent Columbia grad who has been detained by federal immigration authorities.
Mayor Adams condemned the protest by making a plea to their parents on live television.
“Parents, if your children are going to Columbia campus and participate in this, I think you should reach out to them,” Adams said on NBC 4. “This is not what you do on the college campus, particularly going inside a library and protesting in this manner. We are in engagement with the college.”
Nearly an hour into the protest, the large group attempted to push through public safety and out of the reading room, but were stopped by personnel who asked for their identification cards, the videos show.
Through a megaphone, one officer informed students that if they show ID, they will be allowed to leave “without issue,” but failure to do so would make them subject to arrest.
“Individuals have been asked for identification, which will be recorded, and asked to disperse. They have been told that failure to comply will result in violations of our rules and policies and possible arrest,” the school said in a statement, adding that protesters would face discipline.
Shortly after, at least three protesters were brought out of the library by Columbia security in handcuffs before the NYPD was brought on campus. Thirty-six personnel are gaining arrest powers under a deal negotiated with the Trump administration.
A fourth person was taken out on a gurney by emergency medics and put into a Columbia ambulance.
Inside, a vandal with a green marker wrote on glass cases and desks “Columbia will burn 4 the martyrs” and “Butler was a Nazi,” an apparent reference to former Columbia President Nicholas Murray Butler, according to photos on social media.
One person pulled a fire alarm inside the library, prompting demands by protesters to be let go without the precondition of their identity. Another group of about 50 demonstrators gathered outside the library chanting “Free Palestine.”
Columbia finals begin on Friday, according to an academic calendar.
“It’s an utter disgrace,” said Columbia alum Franziska Sittig, 24, who finished a master’s program last year. “My finals were disrupted last year. Neither the administration nor the protesters have learned anything.”
Another observer, a 28-year-old Columbia researcher who declined to give her name, said she witnessed the protester be taken out on the stretcher.
“They tried to push the public security out, and security pushed back,” she said. “That’s when one of the protesters went down.”
The library demonstration was at least the third takeover of a campus building this semester, after activists staged occupations of an administrative building and library at the affiliated Barnard College.
They followed the high-profile occupation of Hamilton Hall last spring, for which several students were expelled earlier this year.
“Once again, protesters violated many university rules,” Hillel Executive Director Brian Cohen said in a statement Wednesday, “and infringed on the rights of Jewish students to study for exams without being screamed at and harassed.”
Columbia is actively negotiating with the Trump administration to restore $400 million in federal funding that was canceled over claims the school did not do enough to protect Jewish students from harassment during the protests. It was not immediately clear if Wednesday’s protests would derail those efforts.
“Students should be able to study peacefully in the library of a school they pay tens of thousands of dollars to attend,” Republican Rep. Tim Walberg, chairman of the House Education Committee, said in a statement. “Instead, the school enables antisemites who antagonize students and make Jews on campus feel unsafe. Unacceptable.”
About 200 protesters continued their demonstration outside the campus gates after the library was cleared.
With Josephine Stratman
Originally Published: May 7, 2025 at 4:43 PM EDT
