Why are some demanding that Columbia University refund students’ tuition amid Gaza protests?

As the war in Gaza rages on,university campuses in the United States remain in an uproar.

Protesters have put up encampments on campuses, blocked traffic, given speeches condemning Israel and Zionism and as administrators have struggled to come to grips with the unfolding situation.

The police, meanwhile, have moved in on campuses and arrested and zip tied dozens of protesters for trespassing.

This, as faculty and experts have expressed concern about authorities crushing dissent and free speech.

Columbia, which remains the heart of the protests, witnessed over 100 faculty stepping up in solidarity with the students on Monday.

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But now, some are calling on the university to refund the students’ tuition fees.

Let’s take a closer look:

The demand comes after Columbia announced it was moving classes online.

Columbia president Nemat Minouche Shafik, in an email to Columbia staff and students on Monday, said the university was cancelling in-person classes and moving to online teaching to “deescalate the rancour and give us all a chance to consider next steps.”

She added that students who don’t live on campus should stay away.

The New York Post quoted Columbia provost Angela Olinto as writing to students, “It’s vital that teaching and learning continue during this time. We recognise conditions vary across our campuses and thus are issuing the following guidelines.”

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But some are unhappy with the move given the cost of studying at Columbia – around $90,000 per year.

Junior Michael D’Agostino, 22, told the newspaper the move was upsetting considering “the amount we pay to be at this school to learn from these amazing faculties and professors.”

“I’m studying applied physics and applied math and those are classes I really benefit from being in-person. I went through COVID and all that when we were online for about a year and it really disrupted our education,” D’Agostino added.

“I really think it’s disheartening to see how our education is being punished as a result of this,” he added. “I think it’s really sad.”

A number of commentators also called on Columbia to refund student fees.

Former Arkansad governor Mike Huckabee posted on X:

Let's get this straight-Jewish prof at Columbia is denied access to campus so violent and vile Jew-hating anarchists are allowed to roam around spewing genocidal chants. If a parent has a child at Columbia, they should demand a refund and then sue for breach of contract. https://t.co/TG2grkyptU

— Ambassador Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) April 22, 2024

National security expert Brigitte Gabriel posted:

Columbia University announced today that their classes will be remote for the rest of the year as anti-Semitic protests erupt across campus.

What an embarrassment. Students should be given refunds.

— Brigitte Gabriel (@ACTBrigitte) April 23, 2024

The police crackdowns came after Columbia University canceled in-person classes on Monday in response to protesters setting up tent encampments at its New York City campus last week.

Demonstrators blocked traffic around Yale’s campus in New Haven, Connecticut, demanding the school divest from military weapons manufacturers. Police arrested more than 45 protesters, according to the student-run Yale Daily News.

In New York, officers moved on the NYU crowd shortly after nightfall as hundreds of demonstrators for hours had defied university warnings that they faced consequences if they failed to vacate a plaza where they had gathered. Video on social media showed police taking down tents in the protesters’ encampment.

As demonstrators tussled with officers and chanted, “We will not stop, we will not rest. Disclose. Divest.”

A New York police spokesperson said arrests were made after the university asked police to enforce trespassing violations but the total number of arrests and citations would remain unknown until much later.

No immediate injuries were reported.

Protests at Yale, Columbia, NYU and other university campuses across the nation began in response to the escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, following the deadly cross-border raid by Hamas militants on Oct. 7 and Israel’s fierce response in the Gaza enclave controlled by Hamas.

Last week, Shafik called in New York Police to clear a tent encampment protesters had set up on Columbia’s main lawn to demand the school divest from Israel-related investments, an unusual move condemned by some faculty.

The school said the encampment violated rules. Police arrested more than 100 students from Columbia on Thursday on charges of trespassing. Columbia and the affiliated Barnard College have suspended dozens of students involved in the protests.

“These tensions have been exploited and amplified by individuals who are not affiliated with Columbia who have come to campus to pursue their own agendas,” said Shafik, who last week testified before a U.S. House of Representatives committee, defending the school’s response to alleged antisemitism by protesters.

Republicans in the House and the Senate, as well as at least one Democratic senator, demanded Shafik resign.

Major university donor Robert Kraft was also unsatisfied that Columbia was protecting Jewish students. Kraft, who is Jewish and the owner of the New England Patriots, has donated millions of dollars to Columbia and threatened to cut off further funding, saying in a statement, “I am not comfortable supporting the university until corrective action is taken.”

Amid angry confrontations at Columbia between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel groups, police have received reports of Israeli students having flags snatched from their hands, but no reports “of any physical harm against any student,” Tarik Shappard, the chief police spokesperson, told a press conference.

Student protesters spent several nights sleeping in the open on the lawn, and have since set up tents again. Students have organised both Muslim and Jewish prayers at the encampment, and some have given speeches condemning Israel and Zionism and praising Palestinian armed resistance.

US president Joe Biden, who has been criticised by the protesters for supplying funding and weapons to Israel, said in a statement on Sunday that his administration has put the full force of the federal government behind protecting the Jewish community.

“Even in recent days, we’ve seen harassment and calls for violence against Jews,” Biden said. “This blatant antisemitism is reprehensible and dangerous – and it has absolutely no place on college campuses, or anywhere in our country.”

Student organisers from the Columbia encampment criticised the Biden statement, noting that some of the organisers are Jewish and that news outlets had focused on “inflammatory individuals who do not represent us.”

“We firmly reject any form of hate or bigotry and stand vigilant against non-students attempting to disrupt the solidarity being forged among students – Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, Jewish, Black and pro-Palestinian classmates and colleagues,” they said in a statement.

“It’s very clear to us that people on the outside do not understand what this encampment is about,” said Lea Salim, a Barnard sophomore who said she was one of 15 Jewish students arrested on the Columbia lawn last week.

Salim said it was not antisemitic to criticise the state of Israel.

On Sunday, Elie Buechler, a rabbi for the Orthodox Union’s Jewish Learning Initiative at Columbia, sent a WhatsApp message to nearly 300 Jewish students recommending they go home until it’s safer for them on campus.

With inputs from agencies