NEW YORK — The pro-Gaza encampment at Columbia University that had exploded into a national phenomenon has been dismantled, leaving an unsettling quiet on campus Wednesday and questions about how the school can move forward.

NYPD cleared the tent city as part of an operation to stop the student occupation of Hamilton Hall. A total of 109 protesters were arrested in the late Tuesday night campus raid, both in and around campus, police said.

Hours later, students and faculty continued to grapple with the fallout of mass arrests and the university’s decision to call in police for the second time since the encampment was erected in mid-April.

With undergraduate classes done for the semester, some students schlepped boxes and said their year-end goodbyes, as others rallied for the rights of Palestinians and against university leadership. Students who live off campus and faculty were still blocked from entering the university gates.

Ahmed Suleyman, 22, stood on Amsterdam Ave. in his Columbia blue cap and gown with a makeshift sign that read: “COPS OFF CAMPUS.” Weeks away from graduation, he’s struggled watching his campus descend into such unrest during his final days.

“I can’t study. I can’t think about anything else,” said Suleyman, who has not participated in protests but sympathized with the Palestinian cause. “I feel like at a bare minimum, I should be allowed to enter the campus and not have to worry, not have such a huge police presence.”

Dozens of those arrested were inside Hamilton Hall, where students had moved in less than a day prior. Police could not say how many of those arrested had no ties to the university, but Mayor Eric Adams attributed an escalation in tactics to “outside agitators” on campus.

College officials encouraged students who could rearrange their plans to leave campus early. Final exams and review sessions were moved online under a new directive Wednesday from the Provost. Some graduate school classes still in session on the Morningside Heights campus were being held remotely.

“I know I speak for many members of our community in saying that this turn of events has filled me with deep sadness,” Columbia president Minouche Shafik wrote in a memo Wednesday to students and faculty. “I am sorry we reached this point.”

A Columbia spokesman confirmed Hamilton Hall has been cleared of all protesters and remains an active crime scene under investigation by the NYPD. Alongside the main encampment on the west lawn, smaller tent demonstrations that had popped up in recent days and the materials left near them were also removed, he said.

...continued

©2024 New York Daily News. Visit nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.