‘Cancel exams, pass everyone’: Columbia law students after Gaza war protests

Law students of Columbia University have urged the administrators to cancel their examinations and give them all passing grades, saying they are “irrevocably shaken” after police recently dismantled pro-Palestine protest encampments, leading to hundreds of arrests. In a letter, the student editors of Columbia Law Review – a journal edited and published by students at Columbia Law School – said the crackdown left many of them “unable to focus and highly emotional”.

“Our response is not disproportionate to the outsized impact it has had on many of us in the community – a crowd of people that proudly represent their membership in a white supremacist, neo-fascist hate group were storming our campus days ago,” the student editors wrote in the letter.

The letter came after the New York Police Department broke up protesters’ tent city on Tuesday night and evicted them from nearby Hamilton Hall, which students took over illegally in support of the Palestinian cause. Columbia administrators had convened a Zoom meeting with student leaders, hoping for a solution, but the standoff couldn’t be resolved. Subsequently, police arrested approximately 300 people on charges of burglary and trespassing, including at least 30 students, alumni and university employees.

The student editors of Columbia Law Review stated in their letter that their demand resonates with a “majority of their classmates”.

“Many are unwell at this time and cannot study or concentrate while their peers are being hauled to jail,” they wrote.

They also called out Columbia Law School’s administration for refusing the students’ calls “for making all classes this semester mandatory pass/fail”.

The letter said that the current exam policy raises concern around “equity and academic integrity”.

“We believe that canceling exams would be a proportionate response to the level of distress our peers have been feeling. In the alternative, making courses mandatory pass/fail would be the next most equitable solution,” the Columbia Law Review editors said.

Columbia Law School resumed final exams on Thursday (May 2) after cancelling all tests the preceding day due to the Pro-Palestinian protests and the closure of the university campus. All the final exams at the school are ongoing remotely instead of in-person, news agency Reuters reported, citing a message to students from law dean Gillian Lester.

Students may opt to have any or all their exams graded on a pass or fail basis.

Besides Columbia, the University of California and Berkeley School of Law have maintained its final exam plans, which began on Monday, a spokesperson told Reuters.