Last week I wrote about the ongoing protests at Columbia University. On the first day of classes for the new semester, a small group disrupted an Israeli history class. As you can see in the clip below, the students were masked and refused to leave when asked. This is a clear violation of campus policies.

BREAKING: Fully masked terror-supporting students broke into a Columbia University class of Jewish students and began handing fliers of Jewish stars burning with "Curse Zionism" written.

Columbia should lose its accreditation and federal funding immediately. Enough of this! pic.twitter.com/yNoLBgiuia

— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) January 21, 2025

So far this isn't working out too well for the activists. One was identified last week and suspended immediately pending a full investigation.

In connection with Tuesday’s disruption of a History of Modern Israel class, Columbia University has identified and suspended a Columbia participant, pending a full investigation and disciplinary process. The investigation of the disruption, including the identification of additional participants, remains active. Disruptions to our classrooms and our academic mission and efforts to intimidate or harass our students are not acceptable, are an affront to every member of our University community, and will not be tolerated.

Today, two more people involved in the disruption were identified. They were not Columbia students so they were referred to the administrators at their schools for discipline.

The University has identified two additional participants who are not Columbia students but are from an affiliated institution. These participants have been barred from Columbia’s campus and referred to their home institution for further investigation and discipline.

The affiliate institutions in this case are Barnard, Union Theological Seminary, and Teachers College. In addition to condemning the behavior, the school's interim president has also discussed the possibility of bringing NYPD officers back onto the campus.

Over the last months, we have gained a much deeper understanding of how many students, faculty, and staff did not feel welcome or safe on the Morningside campus last spring, whether from the disruption of the encampments and associated protests and incidents or the actions and presence of the NYPD. Unfortunately, recent events have shown that our community continues to face a significant risk of disruption on the Morningside campus, including from outside demonstrators, threatening our community members’ sense of safety, and creating the potential need to bring the NYPD on campus. We have a duty to ensure that everyone in our community is safe, feels welcome, and can fully participate in our academic mission.

It's worth noting that the Columbia University Apartheid Divest, which has been organizing many of the protests, has a list of demands including that no police be brought onto campus and total amnesty for all of their past behavior. So by holding students accountable and threatening to bring the NYPD back, interim president Katrina Armstrong is really telling the activists to stuff it. It's a start. Let's hope she keep it up.

Finally, there is also a new effort to create a mask policy on campus which would prevent activists from hiding their identities when they pull these stunts.

An alleged proposed Senate resolution obtained by Bwog titled “Resolution of the Columbia University Senate Proposing a Prohibition on Masking in Classrooms and University Events and Condemning Doxxing” seeks to ban face coverings at University events, citing concerns about anonymity during protests and violations of University policies.

The proposal cites numerous occasions wherein “masked individuals have participated in disruptive actions on campus, hindering the University’s ability to identify and hold accountable those responsible,” specifically citing the occupation of Hamilton Hall, the October 7, 2024 protest, and the January 21, 2025 disruption of the History of Modern Israel class.

The proposal specifically “calls upon the Administration to institute and enforce a University-wide policy prohibiting the wearing of masks or any other face coverings that prevent the identification of the wearer in classrooms, academic, and special events.”

If the activists want to break school policies they should show their faces instead of hiding behind anonymity. But of course they don't see it that way.

In response to the alleged proposal, Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) stated that the ban is “explicitly targeting pro-Palestine activism.”

They also whined that Columbia was putting people at risk of a pandemic by proposing to ban masks. I guess they haven't heard that the public health emergency over COVID ended in 2023.

Hopefully Columbia will keep pushing back on the extremists, who have no intention of backing down. But eventually, if they keep suspending and disciplining them, the troublemakers will be gone and the campus can go back to providing an education.