The student editors at the Columbia Law Review want administrators to cancel the law school’s exams and pass all its students after cops cleared out an anti-Israel encampment last week — claiming in a letter that the police action left the student body “irrevocably shaken.”
The letter — penned right after the NYPD dismantled protesters’ tent city Tuesday night and evicted them from nearby Hamilton Hall — also said the school should at least let students receive a simple pass/fail grade because they’re just so upset.
“The violence we witnessed last night has irrevocably shaken many of us on the Review,” the editors whined in the letter, published by Above The Law.
“We know this to be the same for a majority of our classmates,” the editors continued.
“Videos have circulated of police clad in riot gear mocking and brutalizing our students. The events of last night left us, and many of our peers, unable to focus and highly emotional during this tumultuous time.”
The letter added that the confrontation followed “growing distress” students have felt for months “as the humanitarian crisis abroad continues to unfold, and as the blatant antisemitism, Islamophobia and racism on campus have escalated.”
“We believe that canceling exams would be a proportionate response to the level of distress our peers have been feeling,” the editors said.
“In the alternative, making courses mandatory pass/fail would be the next most equitable solution.”
The demonstrations at the Manhattan Ivy are part of dozens of demonstrations at colleges across the country in which students have sought to takeover buildings, build encampments and disrupt classes in protest of Israel’s war in Gaza.
Many students have called for those universities to review their investments in Israel, or stop doing business with the embattled country altogether.
There have been 2,400 arrests at 46 campuses nationwide since April 17.
In the letter, the editors wrote that the school administration has “refused to consider our calls for making all classes this semester mandatory pass/fail,” despite the fact that three-quarters of its students support it.
“We recognize our position as a student-run academic journal that simply cannot function if our students are not well,” said the letter, which was co-signed by five other law journals at the school.
“Many are unwell at this time, and cannot study or concentrate while their peers are being hauled to jail.”
On Sunday, a law school spokesperson would only say that exams resumed Thursday after a one-day suspension and “will be administered through the conclusion of the exam period.”
Hundreds of cops swarmed the Ivy League school’s Morningside Heights campus at about 9 p.m. Tuesday after they were finally given the green light to clear out the pro-Palestine encampment, which had been disrupting campus life since it began weeks ago.
Officers also rooted out rogue rioters who seized control of historic Hamilton Hall, which saw its windows smashed, furniture destroyed and entrances barricaded during the occupation.
Afterward, the university said it regretted having to rely on New York’s Finest to clean up the mess.
“After the University learned overnight that Hamilton Hall had been occupied, vandalized and blockaded, we were left with no choice,” the administration said.
“Columbia public safety personnel were forced out of the building, and a member of our facilities team was threatened. We will not risk the safety of our community or the potential for further escalation.”
Altogether, authorities arrested about 100 protesters. Some students said they still fear for their safety, even as officers trampled the tent city beneath their heels.
“I’m definitely concerned for my fellow students here, because a lot of the students here have never experienced this disconcerting mob mentality,” junior Drake Harding-Paul told The Post. “I definitely don’t feel safe on campus.”
“I think the response last night was long overdue,” he continued. “I really do think it should have happened a long time ago.”
With Post wires