A Student Journalist Covered a Pro-Palestine Protest. Soon, Her Graduation Came Under Threat.

Back in March, pro-Palestine protesters staged a sit-in at Barnard College, an affiliate of Columbia University, just across the street. Mahmoud Khalil, a recent Columbia graduate and lead negotiator at last year’s encampment, was there, among others, including a few student journalists, who reported as Barnard officials made it known that police had received a bomb threat and said they had to clear the area. Soon, nine people were arrested. (“Anyone who refuses to leave the location is subject to arrest,” officers said.) As it turned out, the bomb threat was fake. Three days later, Khalil was arrested by federal immigration authorities. In early April, Georgia Dillane, a Barnard senior who works at WKCR, Columbia’s radio station, got a “fact-finding” email from Barnard’s Community Accountability, Response, and Emergency Services (CARES) that would eventually place her graduation under threat.