The New York City school has refused to axe its dual-degree program with an Israeli university. Why?
UCLA, Columbia protests see violence, more arrests
College campuses across the country are bringing in police as pro-Palestine protesters remain at encampments.
When a group of pro-Palestinian protesters pitched tents on Columbia University’s Manhattan campus on April 17, they had one goal: to compel the school to sever financial ties with Israel, including halting an academic program in Tel Aviv. Until the demand was met, they refused to leave.
Nearly a month later, it’s clear that the ask was too steep. Negotiations between school administrators and student leaders soured. Police arrested hundreds of demonstrators over the next few weeks. Scores of students were suspended. The school became a lightning rod for a youth-led upheaval over the Israel-Hamas war, sparking similar protests on college campuses across the country.
Their main stipulation was a familiar one in American higher education: that the university stop drawing endowment money from companies affiliated with the Israeli government, particularly those that could stand to gain from the war in Gaza. Multibillion-dollar endowments, especially those at large research universities like Columbia, are complex and secretive. Often managed by hedge funds, they can be connected to thousands of potential revenue sources.
What is divestment? Pro-Palestinian protesters are urging universities to divest from Israel. Here’s what that means.
Another demand from the protesters drew less attention.
In 2019, Columbia launched a dual-degree program with Tel Aviv University. Under the agreement, students could earn two undergraduate degrees by studying in Israel for two years and then returning to the U.S. to finish their schooling at Columbia’s School of General Studies in Manhattan. The program admitted about 60 students in 2021. Columbia offers similar programs, enrolling hundreds of students, in partnership with other universities in international hubs, including Dublin and Hong Kong.
When protesters urged the school to end its affiliation with Tel Aviv University, Columbia’s administrators didn’t budge. It was a point of pride and not a matter for consideration, officials said.
“Columbia University welcomes and embraces the Israeli students, faculty, and staff on our campus and are proud of their accomplishments on behalf of the greater Columbia community,” Columbia spokesperson Samantha Slater said in a statement to USA TODAY. “We also benefit greatly from our dual-degree program with Tel Aviv University, a program that the university will continue to wholeheartedly support.”
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Columbia’s refusal to end the partnership underscores some of the more nuanced truths about how the divestment movement on college campuses is butting up against larger trends in higher education – including the demand for study abroad programs, a “financial aid arms race,” reliance on tuition revenue, and the puzzling ways that money, even at the richest schools, can end up unevenly siloed in ways that reshape students’ lives.
Unequal financial aid at Columbia
When Charissa Ratliff-D’addario decided to leave Spokane Falls Community College in 2019, she thought she knew what she was getting into. She had always fantasized about moving to New York City. When she was 13, she hung a poster of Columbia’s main library on her bedroom wall.
Columbia’s School of General Studies, which houses the dual-degree program with Tel Aviv University, is made for people just like her: nontraditional students a few years removed from high school. Administrators rave about how those students enrich classroom dialogues and bring fresh perspectives to younger students. When Ratliff-D’addario was accepted, she was thrilled.
But the reality of her experience didn’t align with her…
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