Columbia, Student End Suit Over Campus Safety Amid Protests

Columbia University will appoint a liaison over its Public Safety Escort Program through the end of the year as part of a settlement of a proposed class action from a Jewish student over on-campus safety concerns, the parties jointly announced Tuesday.

The student, identified as C.S., will dismiss with prejudice her April requests for declaratory, injunctive, and equitable relief against the university. She’ll also withdraw her emergency motion for a temporary restraining order as a part of the stipulation, the parties said in a joint motion filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The university will appoint a safe passage liaison over its Public Safety Escort Program by June 15, to serve as the designated point of contact for Columbia students with safety concerns. The Public Safety Escort Program will provide walking escorts from the border of its Morningside Campus to any requesting student’s destination on campus as a result of protest activity, the motion said. The program will be offered 24 hours a day, seven days per week until Dec. 31.

“We are pleased we’ve been able to come to a resolution and remain committed to our number one priority: the safety of our campus so that all of our students can successfully pursue their education and meet their academic goals,” a representative from Columbia said in a statement Tuesday.

The liaison position and other provisions of the joint stipulation may be extended beyond Dec. 31 if there are more “threats to student safety on campus in connection with protest activity,” the stipulation said.

Columbia’s chief operating officer, in consultation with the liaison, will also have authority to order alternative access points on campus be opened as necessary, the motion said. The new measures come after pro-Palestinian protests occupied parts of Columbia for over a week. Those encampments resulted in more than 100 arrests of demonstrators after the New York Police Department broke up the protests.

“It’s a university’s most fundamental job to help students think through the hardest issues of the day in a principled way,” Jay Edelson of Edelson PC, counsel for the plaintiff, said in a Tuesday statement.

C.S. alleged the university breached its contract with her when it allowed anti-Israel protests on campus that resulted in “incidents of violence and harassment” towards Jewish students. Columbia also breached its contract by shifting to remote learning, which C.S. alleged deprived her of the education she was promised.

The protests came after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, and the subsequent military response by Israel in the Gaza Strip.

The US Department of Education is also conducting a Title VI investigation into allegations that the school failed to keep Palestinian, Muslim, and students of Arab descent safe.

In February, Columbia was sued by a Jewish graduate student who said the campus experienced an “explosion” of antisemitism since the Oct. 7 attack. The New York Civil Liberties Union and Palestine Legal are also suing Columbia for suspending pro-Palestinian campus groups.

Edelson PC and C.A. Goldberg PLLC represent C.S. Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP represents Columbia.

The case is C.S. v. The Trustees of Columbia Univ. in the City of N.Y., S.D.N.Y., 1:24-cv-03232, joint motion 6/4/24.