Reporter Xu Junda/New York Real Time Report 2024-04-24 17:27 E
The Tibetan student movement at Columbia University enters its seventh day, and occupation activities on campus continue. On the evening of the 23rd, after the school set midnight as the deadline for clearing the site, it subsequently extended the deadline more than once in exchange for time for negotiations. On the morning of the 24th, the ultimatum was changed to 48 hours. Governor Kathy Hochul denied the previously circulated statement that the national militia enter the school to suppress it.
In response to the escalating situation, Columbia University Vice President Ben Chang held a press conference on the afternoon of the 22nd, saying that the school has been discussing solutions with the organizers of the student movement. However, in the evening of the same day, Principal Minouche Shafik sent a school email warning that if negotiations could not be successful before midnight that day, the school would have to “consider other options.” This notice was interpreted by participants in the student movement as an ultimatum. In the student movement communication group, someone posted a message saying that the national militia “may” enter the campus that night to disperse the encampment, and called on supporters to go to the campus to support them.
However, Huo Chu, who has the power to mobilize the national militia, denied the rumors of dispatching troops after an unrelated press conference that day and called on all parties to cool down the situation.
In the early morning of the 23rd, photos circulated among student movement groups showed a large number of people gathered outside the tent camp at Columbia Square. Student movement accounts on other social platforms also claimed that “thousands” of people were present. When the “ultimatum” announced by Shafiq expired at 0:00 on the 23rd, the student movement group announced that the “ultimatum” had been changed to 8:00 a.m. that day.
According to reports, Columbia University issued a statement in the early morning of the 24th, saying that after overnight negotiations, the clearance period was extended to 48 hours in order to gain time for more constructive discussions. The school also said that the organizers of the student movement agreed to remove some tents and asked people outside the school to leave. However, the main organizer of this student movement, the “Columbia University Movement to Divet Apartheid” (CUAD), posted a message on its official social platform account on the afternoon of the 24th, stating that the encampment and occupation activities would not retreat, and called the school’s “cowardly Threats do not divide us.”
An anonymous Chinese international student at Columbia revealed that “I heard that the number of protesters on campus decreased a lot” on the 24th, but according to her visual inspection, the number did not decrease.
Columbia’s student movements have an impact across the United States. According to the latest news released by the student movement organization on the 24th, Brown University, another member of the “Ivy League”, has also begun to have students camp on campus to demonstrate in support of Columbia University and the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. It is reported that Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson will also visit Columbia on the 24th, but as of press time, no further relevant information has been received.
Video source: World News Network One Continent Focus
Newsessentials Blog 
Posted on April 24, 2024
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