Barnard bans dorm room door decorations after lawsuit claims rampant antisemitism, aims to stop ‘isolating different views’
Barnard College has mandated that students remove any and all decorations featuring messages from their dorm rooms as a way to avoid “isolating those who have different views and beliefs” — just days after it was hit with a lawsuit accusing it of allowing antisemitism to run rampant.
Students at the New York City campus have until Wednesday to remove dry-erase boards, decorations, or messaging affixed to their doors, according to a letter sent out on Friday by Barnard College Dean Leslie Grinage and obtained by The Post.
“While many decorations and fixtures on doors serve as a means of helpful communication amongst peers, we are also aware that some may have the unintended effect of isolating those who have different views and beliefs,” Grinage wrote.
“The goal is to be as clear as possible about the guardrails, and, meeting the current moment, do what we can to support and foster the respect, empathy and kindness that must guide all of our behavior on campus,” she added.
The school did not state what repercussions students could face if they don’t adhere to the new policy, which was first reported by the Columbia Spectator school newspaper. Bernard had previously cracked down on two students who hung a Pro-Palestinian banner outside the quad in December, with a disciplinary proceeding underway.
Barnard officials did not immediately elaborate on specifics of the policy and if it was spurred by debates over the war in Gaza.
One Barnard junior blasted the rule for encompassing all decorations, not just political ones.
“I can’t hang a f–king photo of my car because that might offend someone? Why does it have to be all or nothing?” the student said. “I can’t believe they’re being so draconian about this.”
A senior, who declined to give her name over fears that she could be canceled, however, agreed that the rule could serve as a way to avoid hostilities between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli students on campus.
The student also suggested that the policy change was likely meant to help pro-Israeli students dealing with backlash over the war in Gaza.
“From what I observe, it’s a lot more comfortable to be openly pro-Palestine than pro-Israel at Barnard. No one would dare hang an Israeli flag on their door, and if they did, that flag would be gone in five minutes,” She said.
“So if you’re for Palestine, you’re not dealing with much resistance here, whereas if you’re for Israel, you’re going to deal with a lot of hostility.”
Antisemitism controversy at Columbia University: Key events
- More than 280 anti-Israel demonstrators were cuffed at Columbia and the City of New York campuses overnight in a “massive” NYPD operation.
- One hundred and nine people were nabbed at the Ivy League campus after cops responded to Columbia’s request to help oust a destructive mob that had illegally taken over the Hamilton Hall academic building late Tuesday, NYC Mayor Eric Adams and police said.
- Hizzoner blamed the on-campus chaos on insurgents who have a “history of escalating situations and trying to create chaos” instead of protesting peacefully.
- Columbia’s embattled president Minouche Shafik, who has faced mounting calls to resign for not cracking down sooner, issued a statement Wednesday saying the on-campus violence had “pushed the university to the brink.”
- Columbia University president Minouche Shafik was accused of “gross negligence” while testifying before Congress. Shafik refused to say if the phrase “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is antisemitic.
- More than 100 Columbia professors signed a letter defending students who support the “military action” by Hamas.
The embattled Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) group has condemned the new decoration policy as a way for the school to censor students’ freedom of speech.
“This sets a dangerous precedent for the suppression of any academic political discourse in which it is acceptable to silence dissent using the excuse that it can upset someone with a differing view,” the group said in a statement Sunday.
“It is beyond absurd to send out a notice to Barnard students demanding we take down ‘decor’ from our own dorm doors that we are paying to live in,” the Columbia SJP added.
The sentiment was echoed by the schools’ Faculty SJP, which claimed that posters listing the names of Palestinian academics killed in Gaza have started to be taken down from doors across the Barnard campus.
The crackdown at the school comes as the trustees at both Columbia University and Barnard College were named in a lawsuit filed by Jewish Students last week claiming they allowed “rampant antisemitism” to thrive amid the Israel-Hamas war.
The suit — filed by five students and two nonprofits — alleges that Columbia has not substantially intervened as Jewish hate intensified on campus over protests against the war.
“Since October 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists invaded Israel and slaughtered, tortured, raped, burned, and mutilated 1,200 people — including infants, children, and the elderly — antisemitism at Columbia has been particularly severe and pervasive,” documents filed in Manhattan federal court states.
Last November, the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation into antisemitism or Islamophobia at three New York Schools — Columbia, Cornell and Cooper Union.
