IH: The language isn’t “banned,” the language is I don’t “have swipe access.” For the Columbia students that were suspended, their language says that if you are found on campus you will receive more disciplinary action, but ours doesn’t say that. And also, in my email, it doesn’t explicitly say what else I have violated. […]
I don’t know when I can go home, and I don’t know if I ever will be able to. I haven’t formally been evicted. I haven’t been sent a “move out” email, but they’ve just said that I can’t get in, whatever that means. I have like four shirts, two pairs of pants. Only Barnard students are evicted, and I think it’s pretty crazy.
I cannot go to the dining hall. I sent them an email like, “Hey, I rely on campus for my meals, I rely on my dining plan,” and they were like, Oh, you can come pick up a prepackaged bag of food, a full 48 hours after I was suspended. There was no food support, no nothing. The Columbia students still have access to a dining hall and to their homes; they can’t go anywhere else, but they can go home and to one dining hall.
TV: Why do you think it’s going differently for Barnard students?
IH: I think it’s really on a school-by-school basis, and Barnard has decided to take a very egregious stand against us. I think that they feel like there isn’t a big limelight on them right now and that they have the ability to do this, because Shafik was on the congressional stage and is actively being harassed about what she’s doing, versus [Barnard president] Laura Rosenbury has the ability to skirt what’s going on. She’s not the one sending the correspondence, it’s all College Dean [Leslie] Grinage.
It is really confusing and concerning, especially because the majority of the Barnard students are femme-identifying…. A lot of them are staking out in their dorms right now because they haven’t been kicked out. We’ve told them the best option is not to leave, the minute they leave, they can’t get back in.
TV: So what next?
IH: Genuinely we have no clue. Our interim suspension is contingent on what happens at our hearings, which has not been set. They told us that we would receive a date by Monday at noon, so I’m basically at least houseless until then. …
They are literally starting a 15 minute timer if you go and try to get your stuff. I know Maryam did it; I refused, I’m not going to subject myself to that. One of my professors went and tried to retrieve a student’s belongings and public safety treated her like complete shit as well, like the student was a criminal. It’s not the fault of public safety, but it’s egregious to make them enforce such cop-like procedures, this is not in their purview. […]
TV: How has the last week’s focus on Columbia felt?