Three Columbia University graduate students who were suspended last year for attending protests against Israel’s genocide in Gaza filed a lawsuit against the university on Feb. 3. The civil suit, filed with the New York State Supreme Court, alleges that the university repeatedly singled out the plaintiffs for unwarranted scrutiny and harassment over their involvement in the school’s Gaza solidarity encampment and other pro-Palestine actions.
The lawsuit goes on to say that the university disregarded “its established disciplinary procedures to unlawfully persecute the plaintiffs based on their protected status and speech,” and that “the University engaged in extreme and outrageous behavior that exceeds all bounds of decency.” It further alleges that billionaire donors and New York City Mayor Eric Adams “successfully pressured the University to call the police on to campus to arrest plaintiffs and other protestors.”
The suit comes as nearly 200 Harvard University faculty, students, staff, and alumni submitted discrimination complaints to the university, according to a Feb. 4 press release, citing that Harvard has created a hostile environment on campus for Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims, as well as Jewish and other community members who support Palestinian human rights.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) recently added Harvard to its list of “hostile campuses” after the university agreed to adopt an alarming definition of antisemitism that encompasses many types of criticism of Israel. Columbia has been on the list since it launched Jan. 8 due to its disciplinary actions against students.
Columbia refused to comment on impending litigation.
Catherine Curran-Groome, a plaintiff in the Columbia case and an Arab student enrolled in the Master of International Affairs program, said the students were suing because of Columbia’s refusal to be held accountable for the harm it has inflicted.
“We waited for the last year and a half and sought recourse, sought justice through the university’s own systems. We’ve filed complaints, we’ve written emails to the university administration,” Curran-Groome said. “We have engaged in every form of what they considered legitimate protest, from sanctioned political education events to sanctioned protests to democratic referendums, and every step of the way, we were met with repression—and many times violent repression—by the university and its agents.”
Curran-Groome said that despite the university implementing rules and procedures to protect student demonstrators after the 1968 Vietnam War protests, she has seen the same dynamics play out in the disciplinary process, where those rules are being flouted.
“We’re seeing Columbia commit the same harms and the same grave injustices today that they committed in 1968” Curran-Groome said, when more than 700 students were violently arrested after occupying campus buildings while calling for Columbia to cut its ties to research for the war.
Curran-Groome and Aidan Parisi, another plaintiff in the lawsuit, were first suspended on an interim basis for their involvement in a political education event planned by the Palestine Working Group, an official student group Curran-Groome belonged to. The event, held in March 2024, focused on historicizing Palestinian resistance. University officials told the group to move the event to Zoom, to a different date, or off campus, according to the lawsuit. They chose to move it off campus but were told afterward that it was an unsanctioned and unapproved event. The administration launched an investigation into the event, and the students claim they were placed on interim suspension without due process.
According to the lawsuit, the plaintiffs received notice on April 3, 2024 that they were being placed on interim suspension “effective immediately and until further notice,” in order “to ensure the safety of the Columbia University community.” In addition to barring the plaintiffs from their classes, campuses, and academic and extracurricular activities, plaintiffs were given 24 hours to vacate their off-campus apartments, leased to them by the university, before their access would be suspended, the lawsuit claims.
Brandon Murphy was placed on interim suspension over alleged “disruptive behavior,” “vandalism,” and other violations of the university’s guidelines, based on his alleged presence at the student encampment on April 17, 2024. Despite Murphy’s requests, the university did not provide any evidence of the claims, the lawsuit says.
As a result, Murphy lost access to his health care plan, and the status of his full scholarship is uncertain, according to the lawsuit.
On Aug. 23, 2024, Murphy was notified that he was being suspended for one year as punishment for violating the terms of his interim suspension through his alleged presence at an April 30 protest. He appealed the decision, but his appeal was denied.
Curran-Groome and Parisi, too, received longer suspensions for allegedly violating the interim suspensions by being present on campus. The pair said they were never shown any evidence for why the original suspension order was issued.
Curran-Groome received a two-year suspension, and her scholarship was revoked, without which she may not be able to afford to return to Columbia. She believes that this is one of the harshest punishments any student has received for something like this, since the 1968 protests when 30 students were suspended, and that her Arab identity has played a role. Parisi and Murphy have received one-year suspensions each.
At Harvard, the medical school canceled a non-compulsory lecture planned for Jan. 21 on wartime health care that would have had speakers from Gaza who were receiving treatment in Boston, on the basis that the panel was one-sided and did not include Israeli speakers, said Dr. Titi Afolabi, Harvard Medical School alumna and medical staff at Harvard-affiliated hospital.
Afolabi describes this action as the “straw that broke the camel’s back.” Over the last year, concerns of Arab and Palestinian community members have been largely ignored, and it has become more acceptable to discriminate against them, she said. “There is a reporting system for discrimination claims that anyone in the university can submit to, and it just has come to light through CAIR that Harvard has been ignoring or not taking action on many of the complaints that are relating to anti-Arab discrimination.” Canceling the event was another “red flag” she said, adding to the discrimination and harm students are feeling on campus.
“We are hoping that the institution formally recognizes that Arab and Palestinian members of the community exist, and they, too, experience discrimination and harm that needs to be taken seriously,” said Afolabi, who is also a member of the ad-hoc coalition of Harvard faculty and staff for inclusion and belonging. “And on top of that, there is an act of genocide against them occurring right now that is also contributing to the unsafe environment that’s being cultivated on campus.”
Ekaterina Pesheva, Harvard Medical School’s senior director of science communications and media relations, told Prism in an emailed statement, “Harvard Medical School remains committed to combatting [sic] all forms of discrimination and harassment. We will continue to advance our efforts to ensure that all community members belong on our campus and in our classrooms, and are supported in their learning, research, and professional work.”
Pesheva said the medical school “remains committed to finding ways that allow students to voice concerns and constructively explore medical and healthcare delivery issues, including those stemming from war and other forms of geopolitical conflict.”
Similar allegations of ignored concerns from Arab students and those involved in pro-Palestine activism fueled the plaintiffs filing the lawsuit against Columbia, the plaintiffs said.
At a rally on Jan. 19, 2024, pro-Palestine protesters were attacked with “skunk,” a chemical weapon regularly used by the Israeli military on Palestinians, leaving numerous participants seeking hospital treatment, including Curran-Groome, the lawsuit said. After being sprayed with this chemical, students reported burning eyes and nausea, among other symptoms.
Parisi, who was also a victim of this attack, said that they reached out to public safety at Columbia, but their concerns were dismissed because they did not have any clothes to submit as evidence and they had not gone to the hospital. Further, during one of their disciplinary hearings, they reported doxxing and threats of violence, only to be dismissed again. “This was also experienced by numerous other students, and so this, the lack of care for our safety and concern for us, greatly contributed to why we needed to file this lawsuit,” Parisi said.
“The courts are really our only recourse at this point,” Curran-Groome said. “Columbia has left us no alternative.”
Prism is an independent and nonprofit newsroom led by journalists of color. We report from the ground up and at the intersections of injustice.
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