Colum­bia Uni­ver­si­ty moves to hybrid class­es through end of semes­ter due to tense pro-Pales­tin­ian protests

Most class­es at Colum­bia Uni­ver­si­ty will move to a hybrid mod­el through the end of the semes­ter due to tense pro-Pales­tin­ian demon­stra­tions on cam­pus.
Class­es were moved to a vir­tu­al for­mat Mon­day fol­low­ing hun­dreds of arrests and cam­pus unrest. The uni­ver­si­ty faces its sev­enth day of clash­es between pro-Pales­tin­ian and pro-Israel pro­test­ers dur­ing the Jew­ish hol­i­day of Passover.
“Safe­ty is our high­est pri­or­i­ty as we strive to sup­port our stu­dents’ learn­ing and all the required aca­d­e­m­ic oper­a­tions. It’s vital that teach­ing and learn­ing con­tin­ue dur­ing this time,” reads the announce­ment, which urged fac­ul­ty mem­bers on the main cam­pus who could move their class­es to a hybrid for­mat to do so.
Colum­bia Pres­i­dent Minouche Shafik moved class­es online to “deesca­late” ten­sions. 
“We need a reset,” Shafik said. “To deesca­late the ran­cor and give us all a chance to con­sid­er next steps, I am announc­ing that all class­es will be held vir­tu­al­ly on Mon­day.”
Inside the encamp­ment on Columbia’s West Lawn, pro­test­ers were qui­et Mon­day, com­pared to pro­test­ers seen out­sid …