GOP leaders booed as they visit ongoing Columbia protests
MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS, Manhattan (PIX11) -- A deadline for action regarding a tent encampment on the campus of Columbia University was postponed by 48 hours on Wednesday until 12:01 a.m. Friday.
It was an act that seemed to lower tensions, albeit slightly, in and around campus over the war in Gaza. That tension rose again when Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and other Republican congressional leaders came to campus to condemn the protests.
The Republican congressional delegation, which included at least two local members of Congress, Nicole Malliotakis and Mike Lawler, was booed by people on campus as the elected officials spoke on the steps of the administration building.
"We respect free speech," Johnson began, amid shouts from a crowd that had formed outside the large press gaggle on the building's steps. "We respect diversity of ideas," he continued, "but there's a way to do that in a lawful manner, and that's not what this is," he said, as he pointed to the crowd and the tent encampment.
On Wednesday, though, that tent city on the lawn in front of the main library was quiet and orderly.
That was in contrast to last Thursday when the university requested NYPD officers remove the tents and protesters. Within 24 hours, a new, even larger encampment, with even more protesters, was built up on the same site.
This week, the university demanded that the tents be cleared out by Wednesday at midnight, but negotiations between protesters and the administration led to a 48-hour extension.
The tentative agreement resulted in the students agreeing to scale back the size of the encampment and ensure that only people from the university participated in it.
However, some people in the university community said that the situation, particularly for Jewish students, is unsafe.
Franziska Sittig is a graduate student.
Her Jewish friends "are afraid to walk home alone. They are afraid to wear the kippah or any other religious symbols because they might be attacked, [and] they have been attacked," she said.
Other students, however, like Sarafina Belafonte, said that violence related to the tent encampment is extremely rare and that the level of involvement in relation to it by students is underreported.
"I am black, I am white, I am Jewish," said the Columbia sophomore, who's also the granddaughter of activist legends Harry Belafonte and Julie Robinson. "I think a lot of the conversation that is happening around Jewish voices around campus is neglecting the Jewish voices who are supporting the encampment and these protests," she said.
She also said that "Islamaphobic and anti-Arab incidents" at Columbia are being underreported.
Meanwhile, the Columbia administration and student activists continue to meet.
Regarding what other compromises and changes the two sides may make, Columbia University President Minouche Shafik said in a statement on her website:
"We will provide further updates tomorrow."