Student journalists on the campus of Columbia University knew what was coming long before police arrived with riot shields to arrest the pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
They had watched the situation escalate as the protesters stood their ground, refusing to leave Hamilton Hall and using a pulley system to bring supplies to the building they had occupied.
The reporters, who worked for universities and online U.S. and international publications, suspected negotiations with administrators would go nowhere when protesters began donning COVID-era masks to conceal their identities. Some began sleeping on the floor in journalism classrooms or offices for fear of missing out.
But when a journalism professor started writing down the phone number to call if they were arrested with permanent marker on their arms, it became clear: They were making history.
The police operation that cleared Hamilton Hall Tuesday night ended two weeks of drama over the Columbia protests, which student journalists at the Ivy League school experienced while covering them.
Other media outlets were kept off campus, so these reporters were the only ones able to capture what happened.
“I just woke up and thought, I’m going to take some pictures,” said Seyma Bayram, a Columbia journalist focused on creating a long-form investigative podcast unrelated to the protests.
The encampments were a visual feast. There were musical performances, students read and helped each other write papers for their classes. She wanted to document it all.
On Monday, students were suspended if they did not leave. Crowds marched around the encampment singing. Students provided written notices from administration warning them to go. They tore them into pieces and threw them in garbage bins. The rumors flew.
That night Bayram didn’t want to go home because he was sleeping on her office floor.
“How,” she wondered, “are they going to remove the students? They don’t go away.”
By Tuesday she was exhausted. The student reporters loaded their cameras and other equipment and waited.
Many protesters began to leave, recalled Shayeza Walid, a journalism graduate student at Columbia who covered the arrests for the news website Al-Monitor.
The sun set as they held hands and sang, knowing they would face academic consequences if they stayed. Many had now given up covering their faces, Walid said.
To her, the chants sounded like a hymn and she saw the protesters, some dressed in Palestinian keffiyehs, crying. She doubts she’ll ever forget it.
“It felt so inspiring and devastating because these were the kids who were willing to be arrested,” she remembers.
And then the police started gathering outside and setting up barricades. Even on campus, Bayram could tell from the photos on social media that police action was imminent. And then the police arrived.
“I don’t know, it was like suddenly there was riot gear everywhere,” Bayram said.
The student journalists walked backwards and filmed as they walked, Bayram said.
She was pushed off campus. There were police buses and officers everywhere. People were arrested around her.
“Those of us who were kicked out, like student reporters and faculty, I think we were all shocked that there was no press outside or inside Hamilton Hall,” Bayram said.
Walid recalled that the reporters worked together for security. Her partner, an international student, had never seen so many police in one place. “And to be honest, neither did I,” Walid said.
She said police also seemed shocked when they entered the campus and saw how few students remained. “It was clearly out of proportion to where we were,” she said.
Before the arrests, protesters on campus used a megaphone to lead protesters outside with chants, recalled Cecilia Blotto, a journalism graduate student who has published photos and videos on Uptown Radio, a project of the university’s journalism program.
“Columbia, you are a liar,” she recalled as she sang, along with “Reveal, dismantle! We will not stop, we will not rest.”
Then Blotto saw a police van pull up as officers emerged with shields and zip ties. They then played a recording that said if the protesters did not disperse, they would be arrested.
“It felt like people were being dragged across the street, with four officers each holding a leg and an arm. I saw some very striking images of people shouting shame at the police as they dragged students out,” Blotto said. She tried to film it all.
Emily Byrski, a graduate student with a phone number written on her arm in case she was arrested, said the students were not completely unprepared. There had been training.
Still, she said, there had been so many false warnings.
‘It’s like the boy who cried wolf. Like, there were two or three nights here where we were told there was a rumor going around that the NYPD was coming, please come to campus,” she recalled.
Byrski underwent knee surgery earlier this year and was therefore unable to flee when police descended. She was limping along with her buddy.
“So we’re seeing all this happening from the inside and trying to document it as the NYPD grabs people, like pushing them to the ground. It was pretty gruesome to see, just steps away from me,” Byrski said.
She said she has seen professors crying over the past week. She thinks about it all, unsure what to think.
“I’m just a little bit in shock,” Byrski said. “I think we were all in shock.”
