Columbia University suspends more than 65 students over library occupation

Columbia University has suspended more than 65 students for their role in a pro-Palestinian demonstration that forced the shutdown of the main campus library, a school official said on Friday.

The students were placed on interim suspension and will be prohibited from taking their final exams or entering campus except to access their dormitories, the university official said.

Columbia also barred 33 other people from campus, including students from other colleges and alumni who took part in the protest, according to the official.

"When rules are violated and when our academic community is purposefully disrupted, that is a considered choice — one with real consequences," the Columbia official said.

Scores of students were arrested after seizing part of the school's main library on Wednesday in one of the biggest pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus since last year's wave of protests against Israel's war in Gaza.

Officers of the New York Police Department were called to campus to quell the protest at the request of university officials.

The demonstration came amid negotiations between Columbia's board of trustees and the Trump administration, which announced in March it was penalising the university over previous pro-Palestinian protests by cancelling hundreds of millions of dollars in research grants.

There was no immediate reaction to news of the suspensions from student activists representing the protesters.

Organisers of Wednesday's demonstration repeated their long-standing demands that the university cease investing any of its $14.8 billion endowment in weapons makers and other companies that support Israel's military occupation of Palestinian territories.

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