Protestors Rally Over Punishment

More press than protesters clustered by the 116th Street Columbia gates on Broadway Wednesday to rally against what they called the "light punishment" Columbia issued to the eight students who rushed the stage during a speech by Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist.

One of the protesters, David, who withheld his last name, said more than four members of the approximately 200-member New Yorkers for Immigration Control and Enforcement would have come out to participate in the rally if not for the rain.

Clad in a hat pronouncing "Secure our Borders," David repeatedly emphasized that the group came to Columbia not to promote border enforcement, but to state that "strict punishments were in order," six months to the day after the event.

"By abusing the speakers' right to speak, they should have been given a more severe punishment," David said.

Students and passersby argued with the four protesters, as local news channel NY1 rolled tape. "They want to live off us," one NYICE member said, referring to illegal immigrants.

"They want to have opportunities like everyone else," a passerby countered.

Also on Wednesday, protesters Karina Garcia, Martín López, and Cosette Olivo released a joint statement reiterating their dissatisfaction with the disciplinary action Columbia took against them.

They stated that the censures which Columbia issued-which state that further rules violations will result in an automatic suspension or worse-were harsher than the "warnings" given to the other five non-Latino students under investigation for their actions on Oct. 4. These three Latino students were charged with violating the same three rules as the other students, but they were found guilty of violating all three rules, while the other students were found guilty of violating some combination of two out of the three.

"This is a carefully crafted punishment designed to put an end to the growing political activism of Latino students on Columbia's campus," they said in the statement.

University officials have said that Columbia did not plan to respond to "accusatory comments," and that it followed the proper disciplinary procedure prescribed under University rules.