Columbia Cuts Due Process for Student Protesters After Congress Demands Harsher Punishment

Rep. Virginia Foxx , chair of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce , issued a subpoena for internal records.

Foxx accused the university of having “waved the white flag in surrender” to student protesters.

Now dozens of student protesters have received notices that their cases are being fast-tracked to university disciplinary hearings, short-circuiting Columbia ’s own investigation process.

Students and faculty have accused university administrators of failing to follow its own rules in punishing students.

The disciplinary process for students involved in the series of encampments on campus between April and June and the occupation of Hamilton Hall began just as school was letting out for summer .

The school hired an outside investigator, Omar Estrada Torres , rather than rely on its own staff.

Republican lawmakers have decried campus protests as hotbeds of antisemitism.

New York University updated its student code of conduct to make speaking out against Zionism a potential violation of the school’s nondiscrimination policies.

Campus protests have led to the resignation of presidents of elite schools, including Harvard , the University of Pennsylvania , and most recently, Columbia .