Over two dozen pro-Palestinian protesters began a sit-in in the lobby of the Milstein Center for Teaching and Learning at around 1 p.m. on Wednesday, demanding the college reverse the reported expulsions of three Barnard students.

The protest comes one week after a nearly seven-hour sit-in outside Barnard Dean Leslie Grinage’s office in Milbank Hall. At the Feb. 26 sit-in, protesters demanded amnesty for the group and called for the reversal of two student expulsions the college reportedly enacted for students’ participation in a Jan. 21 disruption of the class History of Modern Israel.

At around 2:22 p.m., Director of Community Safety and Emergency Response Gary Maroni sent an email to the Barnard community instructing them to avoid Milstein due to protest activity.

At around the same time, Barnard announced that Milstein “is closed until further notice” due to protest activity and “obstruction to the entrance,” and all classes will be relocated. The message states that a further “update will be sent to the Barnard community later today.”

Barnard President Laura Rosenbury spoke to the group through a phone call at roughly 3 p.m., with Barnard Executive Vice President for Strategy and Chief Administrative Officer Kelli Murray holding a cell phone on speaker to a megaphone.

Rosenbury offered to meet with three members of the group and Barnard Dean Leslie Grinage Thursday or Friday. The phone call ended after a few minutes, and the group decided to stay without an agreement.

At 3:18 p.m., Rosenbury wrote in an email to the Barnard community that “Barnard is committed to fostering a safe environment where all students can learn and all members of our community are respected.”

“When masked disruptors first entered Milstein, classes were taking place, facilities were cleaning classrooms, and dining staff were preparing meals,” Rosenbury wrote. “We must not allow the actions of a few interfere with our mission. Campus activities outside of Milstein and throughout the rest of the campus are proceeding as normal.”

When reached for comment, a Barnard spokesperson directed Spectator to Rosenbury’s email.

Protesters moved a table into the Milstein entrance, displaying pamphlets written by Unity of Fields and the Red Army Faction, as well as the “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood” statement from the Hamas media office.

In a Wednesday Instagram post, protesters called Milstein the “Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya Liberated Zone,” after a hospital director who is currently detained by Israeli authorities.

Columbia University Apartheid Divest posted on Instagram on March 3 that Barnard reportedly expelled a student for participation in the April 2024 occupation of Hamilton Hall.

Protesters distributed flyers listing their demands: reinstatement of the expelled students, amnesty for all students who participated in pro-Palestinian activism, a public meeting with Grinage and Rosenbury, and “abolition” of the current Barnard disciplinary processes and “complete transparency” in all disciplinary proceedings moving forward.

“Disruption until divestment, resistance until return, agitation until amnesty,” the flyer reads. “We will not stop until our demands are met. Free Palestine.”

The protesters left Milbank on Feb. 26 with a tentative agreement to meet Grinage and Rosenbury on Thursday. At a Thursday protest, student negotiators announced that less than an hour before the planned meeting, Barnard administrators had renegotiated the terms of the meeting, asking the protesters to remove their masks and face coverings.

“We were left with no choice but to resume the sit-in because Barnard has shown they will sabotage negotiations unless we hold them accountable,” a Wednesday Substack post by CUAD read.

Protesters chanted “Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest,” “Free, free Palestine,” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Protesters played drums and displayed Palestinian flags. Protesters hung “Wanted” signs of Rosenbury and Grinage, while another held up a doll with a name tag that reads “Laura Rosenbury.”

“WANTED Dean of Students: Leslie Grinage for the wrongful expulsion of pro-Palestinian students,” the sign reads.

Barnard officials put up tape attached to yellow supports in front of Milstein’s doors as both Barnard Community Accountability, Response, and Emergency Services officers and protesters stood outside. Protesters hung a banner on the building’s front windows from inside, which a CARES officer took down. Dozens of onlookers and two National Lawyers Guild legal observers stood outside the building, watching the sit-in, as protesters held the doors open.

In a Monday op-ed published in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Rosenbury addressed those “who hide behind masks.”

“We invite you to step forward, not in anonymity but in dialogue,” she wrote. “We welcome respectful conversation in a space of shared learning and accountability. That requires knowing who is at the table.”

CUAD responded in its Wednesday Instagram post, writing that if “Barnard’s administration expects transparency from us, it must be willing to meet that demand itself.”

“Our student negotiators will comply with the request to unmask under one condition: Barnard College must publicly disclose its financial assets,” the post read.

Around 1:25 p.m., Barnard employees and CARES officers spoke with protesters inside the Milstein lobby and outside the building.

“If you will help me in making clear to everybody, if they’re not willing to find a way to talk to me, that they are not permitted to be on this campus,” a Barnard employee told the protesters outside Milstein. “They need to unmask and identify themselves, and then they need to leave and stop making noise and disrupting the space.”

At around 1:57 p.m., Barnard Executive Vice President for Strategy and Chief Administrative Officer Kelli Murray began distributing notices to the protesters, which read that they are “blocking the lobby and disrupting College operations in the Milstein Center” and that they are in violation of Barnard demonstration policies and the Barnard Code of Conduct.

“This notice is a final request from the College that you immediately cease your participation in this activity and leave Milstein,” the notice reads.

“If you do not comply with this request, we will take further action as necessary to clear the building,” the notice continues. “If you are not a Barnard student, you must immediately leave the Barnard campus.”

At around 2:11 p.m., a protester condemned the reported expulsions of three Barnard students and the college’s disciplinary proceedings.

“They were assumed guilty before they were even able to speak,” the protester said, continuing on to say that the students were issued interim suspensions that barred them from accessing their residence halls and the dining halls before the college expelled them. The protester said that the expulsions are “a marked escalation in the repression of pro-Palestinian activism.”

The protester also condemned one of Columbia’s disciplinary bodies, the Center for Student Success and Intervention, which issued suspensions to protesters it identified as participating in the April 2024 “Gaza Solidarity Encampments.”

“As the genocide in Palestine continues, so does our fight,” the protester said before reiterating the sit-in’s demands.

“We are here today because Barnard has expelled a third student. We fight for amnesty so that we can continue to fight for Palestine,” the protester said. “Free Palestine.”

Another protester took the megaphone, urging students to join the sit-in.

At around 2:35 p.m., Murray approached the protesters, asking them to identify themselves and telling them they are disrupting classes. Protesters yelled “Shut up” before the group began singing “We shall not be moved.”

The House Committee on Education and the Workforce reposted a video of the sit-in on X with the caption “Shameful.”

In a Wednesday post on X, Elisha Baker, CC ’26, published photos of pamphlets by the Hamas media office displayed at the sit-in, which the House committee reposted.

“These students are supporting terrorist hatred for their Jewish peers. Leaders on campus need to do something to hold these students accountable–or be held accountable themselves for their failure,” the House committee’s post read.

In response to the sit-in, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), former chairwoman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, wrote that Columbia is “infested with antisemitism” in a Wednesday post on X.

“The university’s administration is filled to the brim with mealy-mouthed invertebrates who cave to the mob.”