'Can't study or concentrate, peers being hauled to jail': Columbia law students urge University to pass everyone
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Law students of the US' Columbia University requested the administrators to not conduct examinations and give them all passing grades. They said that many of them cannot study or concentrate as their peers were hauled to jail. The letter came after the police dismantled pro-Palestine protest encampments in the University, leading to hundreds of arrests. In a letter by the student editors of Columbia Law Review, they also called out the Columbia Law School's administration for refusing the students' calls "for making all classes this semester mandatory pass/fail." "Many are unwell at this time and cannot study or concentrate while their peers are being hauled to jail," the letter read. On May 2, the Columbia Law School resumed final exams after cancelling all tests on Wednesday due to the pro-Palestinian protests and subsequent closure of the university campus. Final exams at the school are ongoing remotely instead of in-person, Reuters reported. The letter further said the crackdown left many of them "unable to focus and highly emotional." The student editors said in their letter: "Our response is not disproportionate to the outsized impact it has had on many of us in the community- a crowd of people that proudly represent their membership in a white supremacist, neo-fascist hate group were storming our campus days ago." The New York Police Department recently broke up protestors' tent city and evicted them from the Hamilton Hall. The students took over the Hamilton Hall illegally to support the Palestinian cause. Columbia University administrators held a Zoom meeting with student protestors, hoping for a solution but the impasse continued. Following this, the police arrested around 300 people on charges of burglary and trespassing, including at least 30 students, alumni and university employees. "We believe that canceling exams would be a proportionate response to the level of distress our peers have been feeling. In the alternative, making courses mandatory pass/fail would be the next most equitable solution," the Columbia Law Review editors said. The letter said that the university's exam policy at present raises doubts around "equity and academic integrity". (With inputs from Reuters)