Columbia U. grads tear up diplomas to protest school, Mahmoud Khalil arrest: Im not a proud alumni at all

A group of Columbia University grads tore up their diplomas on campus over the weekend to protest the school and the feds’ detention of former student and anti-Israel demonstration leader Mahmoud Khalil.The rally, which took place during the Ivy League university’s annual Alumni Day celebration Saturday, included students as well as a few dozen graduates of the Ivy League institution’s School of International and Public Affairs — with the crowd chanting, “Free Palestine!”“It’s not easy to do this, with none of us doing this lightly.There’s no joy in this,” said Amali Tower, a 2009 SIPA graduate who spoke at the protest and ripped up her diploma, to NBC News.“I’m not a proud alumni at all, and instead I want to stand with the students, and I want to stand with Palestinians, and I want to stand with immigrants who are being rounded up and harassed, oppressed and deported as we speak,” said Tower, who is herself an immigrant.The demonstration came amid a period of prolonged turmoil at Columbia, which just saw its board of trustees push interim university President Katrina Armstrong from her post last week during a battle with the Trump administration.

The White House has demanded the school institute a total ban on facial coverings worn by campus protesters or risk losing hundreds of millions of dollars in federal aid.While the university acquiesced to a list of demands put forth by the administration’s new Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism last week — under threat of losing the $400 million in funding — Armstrong had privately downplayed the policy changes to faculty.She was in the job barely seven months after taking the place of former President Minouche Shafik, who resigned in August following months of campus unrest that included disruptive weeks-long encampment protests and the violent takeover of Hamilton Hall, where dozens were arrested.After Armstrong’s ouster, CU board of trustees co-Chair and SIPA alumni Claire Shipman was...