In an Aug. 29 Intercept article, investigative reporter Jonah Valdez makes clear that several features of due process are being ripped up for some Columbia University students who protested against Israeli genocide policies on campus during the last school year. This is part of a new round of intimidation for this school year.
Valdez writes, “dozens of student protesters have received notices that their cases are being fast-tracked to university disciplinary hearings, short-circuiting Columbia’s own investigation process. Scheduled interviews with students have been canceled, and cases are moving directly to the University Judicial Board, which can expel or otherwise punish students, according to an email reviewed by the Intercept. Moving a case to a hearing without interviewing students for their version of events is an unprecedented move.”
A majority of the more than 70 students will be allowed to attend classes, starting Sept. 3, but they face a number of circumstances that could lead to other charges. Columbia brought in an outside investigator, Omar Estrada Torres, rather than rely on its own staff to investigate the charges. Torres also handled investigations into students involved in pro-Palestine protests at the University of Michigan, in which he referred the cases to the state attorney general to file charges against students. A spokesperson for the AG’s department told the Intercept that prosecutors are continuing to review cases for “potential criminal conduct” related to protests at the university.
A larger group of Columbia faculty sent a letter to the University Senate, referencing the alleged illegal use of evidence and further issues with the investigation, such as failing to redact students’ personal information from investigatory files—like full names, addresses, university ID numbers, and birthdates—which is in violation of the Federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, faculty members wrote.
This is in the direction of the treatment meted out to Scott Ritter, Tulsi Gabbard, journalist Richard Medhurst, and others, to protect the Anglosphere’s two wars in Southwest Asia and Ukraine.
