Masked Columbia protesters march on campus, defying Trump-ordered ban on face coverings

Dozens of masked protesters swarmed Columbia University’s campus less than 72 hours after school officials enacted restrictions curbing face coverings to comply with a Trump administration order aimed at combatting antisemitism in higher ed.The fresh round of demonstrations led a Jewish Columbia student to question whether the new rules went far enough.“They’re protesting the mask ban.They’re defying what they perceive is a mask ban.

There is no mask ban,” Eden Yadegar, 21, a senior Middle East studies major told The Post.“It’s frightening to see what has happened over the last 18 months.I’m concerned about the future of higher education.

It’s really disturbing what has been happening, the desecration of our community,” she said.The protesters, organized by the Graduate Student Union and the Palestine Solidarity Coalition, put out a cattle call on social media Monday, proclaiming it “Mask-Up Monday” — provocatively thumbing their noses at the university’s newly announced restrictions and urging students, faculty and staff to skip work or class for the day.“Columbia, in collaboration with the White House, is attempting to repress its students fighting for Palestinian liberation just as ‘Israel’ has broken the ceasefire and re-escalated its genocide of Palestine,” a flyer making the rounds online read in part.The Trump administration called for a total ban on masks at campus protests as part of a sweeping list of university reforms in a March 3 letter penned by a joint task force composed of the Department of Education, the General Services Administration and Health and Human Services.The Ivy League school was given a month to comply or risk losing around $400 million in federal funding.On Friday, Columbia announced it would cooperate with the order, instituting numerous policy changes in direct accordance with the task force’s demands.Among the changes, the university banned all face coverings on campus worn “for the purpose...