Columbia cannot come to agreement with protesters, president says
Protesters at Columbia University, who sparked many of the protests across the nation earlier this month, are now being asked to voluntarily disperse after the school's president said it was not able to come to an agreement through negotiations.
Since Wednesday, "a small group of academic leaders has been in constructive dialogue with student organizers to find a path that would result in the dismantling of the encampment and adherence to University policies going forward. Regretfully, we were not able to come to an agreement," Columbia President Minouche Shafik said in a statement Monday morning.
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One of the top demands of the protesters, for Columbia to divest from Israel, was flatly denied by the university, according to the statement.
The school asked protesters, who number in the hundreds, to voluntarily disperse, but offered no explanation for what would happen if they did not. The school said it did not "want to deprive thousands of students and their families and friends of a graduation celebration." The school's graduation ceremony is set to be held May 15.
"We urge those in the encampment to voluntarily disperse," Shafik wrote. "We are consulting with a broader group in our community to explore alternative internal options to end this crisis as soon as possible. We will continue to update the community with new developments."