Instead of joining in Columbia University’s annual “Alumni Day” celebrations for the School of International and Public Affairs, several alumni gathered to denounce the school by ripping up their diplomas in protest.
The protest follows the detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student at the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), a Palestinian activist and a green card holder. Khalil was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at his university-owned apartment on March 8.
The demonstration was organized by SIPA Alumni for Palestine and began with a group of alumni and current student speakers, a few dozen people chanting and then a collective ripping of diplomas.
“It’s not easy to do this, with none of us doing this lightly. There’s no joy in this,” said Amali Tower, a 2009 SIPA graduate who spoke at the protest.
Tower said as an immigrant who experienced displacement, she had to fight hard to get her master’s in international affairs at Columbia.
“I’m not a proud alumni at all, and instead I want to stand with the students, and I want to stand with Palestinians, and I want to stand with immigrants who are being rounded up and harassed, oppressed and deported as we speak,” she said.
Columbia University did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Saturday’s protest.
The protesters held up signs and chanted “Free Palestine” and “Free Mahmoud Khalil” throughout the afternoon.
Khalil’s lawyers say he is currently being detained in a facility in Louisiana.
The Trump administration said it wants to deport Khalil because of his role in the pro-Palestinian protests on campus and accused him of being a threat to foreign policy.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this is just the beginning for him and Trump, who intend to continue targeting protesters who hold student visas.
“Once you’ve lost your visa, you’re no longer legal in the United States. And we have a right, like every country in the world has a right, to remove you from our country,” Rubio said this week.
“If you apply for a visa to enter the United States and be a student, and you tell us that the reason why you’re coming to the United States is not just because you want to write op-eds, but because you want to participate in movements that are involved in doing things like vandalizing universities, harassing students, taking over buildings, creating a ruckus, we’re not going to give you a visa,” Rubio said.
Khalil’s detention and the protests have occurred as Columbia is dealing with another leadership shake-up.
On Friday, the school announced that its interim president, Katrina Armstrong, had stepped aside to return to the school’s Irving Medical Center. The move comes a week after the school agreed to a deal with the Trump administration to negotiate the restoration of its federal funding.
Armstrong is being replaced by Claire Shipman, who is the co-chair of the board of trustees, making her the third university president in less than a year. Shipman is a former White House correspondent for NBC News, CNN and ABC News.
She testified before Congress last Spring during a hearing about the university’s efforts to combat antisemitism.
“It’s another figurehead that the Board of Trustees is going to use to do their bidding. I don’t think it matters,” Hannah, a 2024 alumna, said at Saturday’s protest.
She did not give her last name out of fear for her safety.
“I think Minouche Shafik did an awful job. I think the interim President Armstrong did an awful job. I think Shipman is going to do an awful job because they’re not listening to their students. They’re listening to the Board of Trustees,” she added.
Hannah also ripped up her diploma.
“I’m here today because I’m Jewish, and my Jewish beliefs tell me to show up for communities that are being oppressed, that are being targeted,” she said.
Columbia is not the only school that has had students detained. Foreign-born students at Tufts University, Georgetown University and the University of Minnesota have been taken into federal custody.
Some current students at the Columbia University protest Saturday said they have lost faith in their school.
“Students are terrified to set foot on campus. I’m one of them, so just the fact that I’m here is scary because the way that our colleagues have disappeared,” Jasmine Sarryeh said.
Sarryeh is studying for a masters of public affairs at SIPA and is friends with Khalil.
“Mahmoud is a very loved community member, and the fact that he was taken away from his eight months pregnant wife and from all of us here at SIPA is devastating,” she said. “It’s hard to go to class, it’s hard to come here and not think of him.”
Sarryeh said she has also lost faith in the value of the education she’s getting from Columbia.
“Columbia University used to be a bastion of freedom of speech and academic freedom, and it’s headed in a really dangerous direction,” she said. “And if they don’t start standing up for Mahmoud and all the protesters that were basically enacting their constitutional freedom of speech and right to freedom of assembly, that will set them down a very dark path that I hope the university doesn’t go down.”
