At the beginning of 2023, Townhall reported how former first lady and two-time failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton joined Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs as a professor. Clinton served as secretary of state under former President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013 after she unsuccessfully ran for president in 2008. In 2016, Clinton ran for president a second time and lost to former President Donald Trump.
This week, reports broke that students staged a walkout from one of Clinton’s classes.
Thirty students walked out of Clinton’s class at Columbia University to “shame” the school for how they believe it allowed its students who signed a statement against Israel to be “publicly shamed.”
According to The New York Times, 300 students were seated for a lecture surrounding women’s involvement in peace processes from Clinton and Keren Yarhi-Milo, the dean of Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs.
During the class, 30 students stood up and left the lecture as part of a planned student walkout. They joined other students congregating near the lobby of the building (via NYT):
The demonstrators, who sat quietly in a common area in the International Affairs Building — many of them in face masks — were protesting what they perceived as the school’s role in publicly shaming students whose photographs appeared last week on the video screen panels on a truck seen near campus. The screens showed the faces of students beneath the words “Columbia’s Leading Antisemites.” The students said the photographs were taken from a “private and secure” online platform for students at the School of International and Public Affairs.
They demanded “immediate legal support for affected students” and “a commitment to student safety, well being and privacy.”
The students whose images appeared on the video panels were members of groups that had signed a statement about the war in the Middle East that said, in part, “The weight of responsibility for the war and casualties undeniably lies with the Israeli extremist government.”
Shortly after, the Times noted, the school announced a new task on doxxing and safety for students.
Earlier this month, Townhall reported how a coalition of Columbia University student groups signed and published a statement blaming Israel and the U.S. for Hamas’ invasion and calling for “liberation.” In the statement, the students also referred to the Hamas terrorist organization as “Palestinian fighters.”
“We also affirm that there can be no future of safety and freedom for all Israelis and Palestinians without holding the Israeli occupation accountable for its actions and putting an end to the untenable status quo of Israel's apartheid and colonial system,” the statement read. “We cannot view the recent actions of Palestinian fighters in isolation. Gaza is an open-air prison that lacks the essential necessities such as food, clean water, medicine, and electricity.”
In response, more than 100 professors at Columbia signed a letter defending the students who supported Hamas’ attacks on Israel. In the letter, the professors called on the university to protect the students from “disturbing reverberations” for showing their support, which Townhall reported.