C.S. v. Columbia University Settlement Information

This page provides information about the settlement in C.S. v. Columbia. Through the settlement, Columbia has agreed to immediately secure the safety of students on campus by creating a new position at the University, 24/7 walking escorts and safe entrances to campus, and accommodations for students who were displaced from campus and couldn’t finish exams or other important assignments. Columbia has promised to continue supporting and permitting free thought and open conversations in its community, and will not stand in the way of safe, public debates on the issues giving rise to the campus protests.

No student, other than Plaintiff, has given up any rights to get these commitments from Columbia.

We need your help: If you are a Columbia student, professor, or a member of the public that wants to contribute to safe, public debates about the issues giving rise to the campus protests, we are seeking moderators, speakers, and debate topics on our page for the forthcoming Speak for Peace event.

You can use the hyperlinks below to jump to the section of this page you’re most interested in.

What is this case about?
Who are the lawyers representing Plaintiff?
What happened after the case was filed?
What does the settlement provide?
Does the settlement affect monetary claims?
Contribute to safe, public debate on these subjects.
Key Documents

If you think you are experiencing grade retaliation from a TA or professor as a result of your views on the campus protests or the issues that gave rise to them, contact us.

After Hamas’s terrorist attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, there has been a surge of intense debate across the country—including on university campuses—about the State of Israel, its response to the attacks, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and the U.S.’s role in supporting Israel. Much of that debate was and is protected by the free speech principles that are the bedrock of American society and a core mission of American universities, even when engaging on profoundly uncomfortable subjects or carried out with inflammatory language.

But an increasingly extreme element within the debates on campuses, and Columbia in particular, began to actively intimidate and threaten Jewish students. Jewish students were targeted by statements such as “Death to the Jews,” “Long Live Hamas,” and told to “go back to Poland.” And on April 18, 2024, a group of demonstrators at Columbia University began occupying a central location on campus with more than sixty tents, actively blocking Jewish and other students—by force, harassment, and threats of violence—who did not share their views from traversing campus and attending classes.

Columbia’s leadership requested that the students leave the encampment, but the students occupying the area simply refused. Rather than take firmer action against the encampment, Columbia took the extraordinary step of shifting to “hybrid” learning: that is, Jewish students who were unsafe on campus stayed home, while the extreme demonstrators were allowed the full enjoyment of the campus.

Moreover, Columbia had not only failed to keep its campus safe but had failed to live up to its unique position as a university: the place best positioned in our society to work through controversial topics, based on an understanding of actual facts and history. Instead, Columbia had come to be solely focused on permitting the protests, while abdicating the parts of its academic tradition that would have lended rigor and a shared reality to the debates going on on its campus.

Plaintiff, C.S., brought suit on April 29, 2024, arguing that Columbia was failing to live up to its contractual agreement to provide a safe campus for all of its students. Plaintiff sought emergency relief from the Court, called a temporary restraining order, to restore order to the campus and allow students like Plaintiff to return.

The same day that Plaintiff filed her lawsuit—April 29—the Court ordered the Parties to attend a hearing on Plaintiff’s emergency motion to be held the following day. Lawyers for Columbia immediately engaged with Plaintiff’s lawyers to discuss the situation on campus and exchange information.

The night of April 29 and into the early morning of April 30, protesters broke into Hamilton Hall and occupied it. On April 30, the Parties reported to the Court that they were meeting to discuss the escalating situation on campus and the necessary measures to resolve Plaintiff’s emergency motion.

After the hearing, Columbia finally agreed to authorize the New York Police Department to intervene to end the occupation at Hamilton Hall and dismantle the encampment. By the morning of May 1, the protesters had been dispersed from the campus building and the encampment. Columbia asked that the New York Police Department to remain on campus through May 17, 2024.

Plaintiff’s counsel and counsel for Columbia remained in daily conversations after the encampment was disbursed about the situation on campus, the steps it would take to ensure student safety going forward, and resolution of Plaintiff’s case.

You can read the full settlement document here.

The settlement provides key measures to make sure that students can safely access the campus going forward, have a right to accommodations if they were displaced from campus and unable to complete assignments or finals, and a commitment by the University to support students trying to use the traditional forms of the academic tradition to deal with hard problems—like safe, public debates. Specifically, the settlement provides:

Creation of the “Safe Passage Liaison.” The Safe Passage Liaison will act as the designated point of contact for Columbia students with safety concerns and will coordinate responses to student requests for walking escorts.
24/7 walking escorts on campus. Any student is entitled to a walking escort between destinations on campus or from a campus destination to the border of campus, 24 hours per day, seven days per week.
Access to campus. The Safe Passage Liaison must (in consultation with other University stakeholders) provide alternative, safe entrances to campus when the circumstances warrant it, including when there is protest activity on campus or immediately outside the campus gates. When access to campus is restricted, students may access the campus to retrieve belongings using the walking escort program.
Accountability. The Liaison will ensure that the campus safety provisions of the settlement are functioning as set forth in the agreement, and will meet with students concerned about safety as a result of protest activity to discuss issues that arise with the program.
Accommodations. Any student who was unable to complete a key assignment or exam due to campus access restrictions may, within 30 days of the agreement, request an accommodation from their instructor. Instructors must make good-faith accommodations of truthful requests, in light of the circumstances presented in the individual request. Any request that is denied may be appealed to the respective dean of students or program director. If an appeal is denied at that level, the student may further appeal to the dean of students of the student’s respective school.
Commitment to the academic tradition of debate. Plaintiff and Class Counsel firmly believe that open debate is critical. Columbia agrees with that. Columbia agrees to support, or at least not interfere with, efforts by students to sponsor or promote safe, public debates within the university community. We want your input on these debates! Submit your ideas on our Speak for Peace page.

*C.S. v. Columbia UniversitySettlement Information***

What is this case about?

Who are the lawyers representing the Plaintiff?

What happened after the case was filed?

What does the settlement provide?

Does the settlement affect monetary claims?

Key Documents