Editors of Columbia Law Review Call for Cancellation of Finals Due to Police Presence Amid Protests

On Wednesday, students who work at the Columbia Law Review released a statement demanding that the university cancel all final exams due to students becoming “irrevocably shaken” by police presence on campus amidst violent anti-Israel riots

According to the Washington Free Beacon, the statement claimed, with no evidence, that police on campus have been “brutalizing” students, and that as such, cancellation of all finals would be a “proportionate response” to the “distress our peers have been feeling.”

“The current exam policy raises concerns around equity and academic integrity,” the statement claimed. “Many are unwell at this time and cannot study or concentrate while their peers are being hauled to jail.”

“We do not think it is inconsistent with being a leading voice in legal academia and legal scholarship to prioritize students’ health and safety,” the statement continued.

The statement also makes a bizarre reference to a “White supremacist, neo-fascist hate group” that allegedly was seen “storming” campus, although it gave no specific details and no such group was ever seen on Columbia’s campus.

In response to the demands, Columbia Law School issued a statement saying that there are no plans to cancel finals, reaffirming that the tests will be conducted “through the conclusion of the exam period.” Exams that were already scheduled for May 1st have already been postponed, as the night prior saw rioters smashing windows at Hamilton Hall and storming the building; the rioters took a janitor hostage and refused to release him. Police officers eventually retook the building and arrested 40 rioters inside and 80 rioters outside.

Columbia has vowed to expel the students who were involved in the occupation of Hamilton Hall, after previously suspending students who took over the university’s central quad over the course of one week.

“The events of last night left us, and many of our peers, unable to focus and highly emotional during this tumultuous time,” the Columbia Law Review’s statement said in response to the violence. “This only follows the growing distress that many of us have felt for months as the humanitarian crisis abroad continues to unfold, and as the blatant antisemitism, islamophobia, and racism on campus have escalated.”

Students at the journal also demanded that, in the event that finals are not canceled, the courses should instead be switched to “Pass/Fail” standards of grading instead of traditional letter grades from A to F; Pass/Fail classes do not alter a student’s grade point average (GPA) and thus make no distinction between those who ace the exams and those who barely pass.

“Instituting an optional Pass/Fail policy is not really optional when employers will see that some students have grades and others do not,” the students claim. “[T]his leaves room for the introduction of extreme bias into the hiring process.”

The editor-in-chief of the journal, Alexandria Iraheta Sousa, is a second-year law student who has previously worked for multiple far-left nonprofit organizations, including the dark money group Demand Justice.