Get back into class, US Speaker Mike Johnson tells university protesters

Mike Johnson faced a hostile reception when he visited the university in New York and told students to stop ‘wasting’ their parents’ money, as the demonstrations spread to Texas and California.

Mike Johnson at Columbia University on Wednesday. Picture: AFP

US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson sparred with pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia University as he called for its president, Minouche ­Shafik, to resign over a week of “madness”.

Mr Johnson visited the New York campus on Wednesday, a week after Baroness Shafik testified before congress about antiSemitism at the school. A chorus of boos erupted from a campus encampment as the Republican from Louisiana began remarks on the library steps.

“We just can’t allow this kind of hatred and anti-Semitism to flourish on our campuses, and it must be stopped in its tracks,” Mr Johnson said, flanked by other members of his party. “Those who are perpetrating this violence should be arrested. I am here today, joining my colleagues and calling on president Shafik to resign if she cannot immediately bring order to this chaos.”

The Speaker said he had met with Baroness Shafik and Jewish students who expressed fears over the “lawlessness and chaos” on campus. Mr Johnson avoided questions about calling the Nat­ional Guard to aid in the dismantling of the encampment, but said he planned to call President Joe Biden to discuss federal action.

Mr Johnson was repeatedly interrupted by protesters chanting “from river to sea” and “Mike you suck” and “we can’t hear you”. At one point he replied: “Enjoy your free speech.”

“Go back to class and stop the nonsense. If you want a debate on campus about the merits of these things, let’s do that. But you can’t intimidate your fellow students to stay home,” he said, adding: “Stop wasting your parents’ money.”

More than a dozen schools including New York, Yale, Harvard, Brown, Minnesota and UC Berkeley universities saw new encampments spring up in the past week in “solidarity” with the events at Columbia.

On Wednesday, 10 protesters were arrested at the University of Texas at Austin. At least three others were arrested at the California Polytechnic State University, Humboldt, and more arrests were said to be taking place at the University of Southern California after clashes broke out with police.

Pro-Palestine demonstrators argue with campus cops after they tried to take down an encampment at the University of Southern California on Wednesday. Picture: AFP

It follows nine arrests at the University of Minnesota on Tuesday, 120 at NYU and 60 at Yale.

Baroness Shafik would be the third Ivy League university president to resign over campus antiSemitism since December should she bow to pressure from lawmakers, students and staff members incensed over her handling of protests.

Hours before Mr Johnson’s visit, Columbia officials called off a deadline for the removal of the encampment, which was erected on the day of Baroness Shafik’s congressional testimony.

More than 100 students from Columbia and its sister school, Barnard College, were arrested the following day, prompting widespread uproar.

Protesters had been ordered to clear the area by midnight on Wednesday, but the time came and went without action from school officials or police. At 3am, the university extended the deadline for another 48 hours, citing “important progress with representatives of the student encampment”. It said the demonstrators had agreed to reduce the number of tents, remove non-students and enforce a ban on discriminatory or harassing language.

Mounted police work to contain demonstrators at the University of Texas at Austin on Wednesday. Students walked out of class as protests over Gaza continue to sweep college campuses around the country. Picture: AFP

No details were given on the nature of negotiations. The protesters have been demanding that the university divest from companies linked to Israel. Columbia officials have made no indication of meeting these demands.

Before the deadline extension, the university said it would consider “alternative options” to clear the encampment. Columbia’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine said it would return to negotiations only if the university committed to keeping the NYPD off campus.

Officers have instead been stationed around every entrance, alongside private security.

Columbia cited its trespassing policy in the arrests made over the past week, drawing ire from students who feel entitled to space to protest. “There are a very large number of students who find the idea that they would be trespassing on their own campus where they are registered as a student in the middle of the day, to be unjust and kind of absurd,” said Angus Johnston, an assistant professor at the City University of New York and historian of American student culture.

Professor Johnston said Col­umbia’s poor response to the protests has played a large role in the way that anti-war protests had spread to other university campuses across the US.

In the aftermath of the Oct­ober 7 Hamas attack and Israel’s retaliation, rallies denouncing the killings of dozens of thousands of civilian Palestinians have been a mainstay on university campuses across the country.

The Times