--- title: My Columbia Writing Students Must Be Able to Tell the Truth description: The arrests of my students at Columbia is a reminder that we must protect the next generation of writers so they can witness and share the truth. canonical: https://time.com/6975618/columbia-protests-writing-students-truth/ author: Matthew Salesses article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-05-07T16:34:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-19T07:42:18.260Z article:section: Ideas og:title: My Writing Students Were Arrested at Columbia. Their Voices Have Never Been More Essential og:description: "Today’s writing students will record how our current events become history" og:url: https://time.com/6975618/columbia-protests-writing-students-truth/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltba714d3b99bdc140/698a568116d884114dc3e9ff/protect-truth-protests-columbia.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2400 og:image:height: 1350 og:image:alt: Palestinians Campus Protests Columbia og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: My Writing Students Were Arrested at Columbia. Their Voices Have Never Been More Essential twitter:description: "Today’s writing students will record how our current events become history" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltba714d3b99bdc140/698a568116d884114dc3e9ff/protect-truth-protests-columbia.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # My Writing Students Were Arrested at Columbia. Their Voices Have Never Been More Essential > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Inside TIME: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Inside TIME is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. A closer look at TIME's latest cover and our most compelling stories. Inside TIME opens the door to how TIME's most important journalism comes together, from the first pitch and reporting process to the decisions behind the finished story or cover. 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Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=5ca1f6f1-11a1-42a9-b056-540bf367281e&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Talking to Student Journalists in the Wake of Widespread Campus Protests [Watch (HLS stream): Talking to Student Journalists in the Wake of Widespread Campus Protests](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/IBt9e7kg.m3u8) (5:39)  _Published 2024-05-15. TIME spoke to student journalists from UCLA, Columbia, Northwestern and University of Texas at Austin who were on the front lines covering protests on their own campuses. As the unrest grew, student journalists were often best positioned to tell the story although they faced dual challenges—as members of the media and students at the institutions they were covering._ by [Matthew Salesses](https://time.com/author/matthew-salesses/) ## Matthew Salesses May 7, 2024 4:34 PM UTC TIME spoke to student journalists from UCLA, Columbia, Northwestern and University of Texas at Austin who were on the front lines covering protests on their own campuses. As the unrest grew, student journalists were often best positioned to tell the story although they faced dual challenges—as members of the media and students at the institutions they were covering. by [Matthew Salesses](https://time.com/author/matthew-salesses/) ## Matthew Salesses May 7, 2024 4:34 PM UTC On April 30, 56 years after Columbia sent the police in to arrest student protesters who had taken over Hamilton Hall in protest of the Vietnam War—protests the school loves to promote—I was walking my 12-year-old daughter home after her choir performance. We had gone an extra stop on the subway because the stop at 116th, Columbia’s stop, was closed. Instead, we had to walk back to our apartment from the 125th stop. When we got within sight of Columbia, a line of dozens of police blocked our path. I asked them to let us through; I pointed to our apartment building and said we lived there. As a Columbia professor, I live in Columbia housing. “I have my orders,” the cop in charge said. “I live right there,” I said. “It’s my daughter’s bedtime.” “I have my orders,” he said again. “I’m just trying to get home,” I said. We were forced to walk back the way we came from and circle around from another block. Luckily, our building has an entrance through the bodega in the basement. This is how I took my daughter up to her room and sent her to bed. **Read More:** [_Columbia's Relationship With Student Protesters Has Long Been Fraught_](https://time.com/6973593/aniko-bodroghkozy-interview/) A week earlier, I had brought some food for the students camping out on Columbia’s West Lawn and had met with similar resistance. Security guards asked whether I was really faculty; I had already swiped my faculty badge that should have confirmed my identity. They asked to take my badge, then they said I hadn’t swiped it, which I had, two seconds earlier, as they watched. They said their professors had never brought food to them before. I didn’t know what to say to this—“I’m sorry that your professors never brought you food?” They called someone and told them the number on my badge. Finally, they were forced to let me through. They said again that their professors had never brought them food. “OK,” I said, and walked into campus. I reported their behavior and never received a reply. On April 30, after I had got my daughter to bed, my partner and I took the dog down to pee. We watched the protesters call, “Shame!” as the police went in and out of the blockade that stretched 10 blocks around campus. Earlier that day, we had seen police collecting barricades—it seemed like there would be a bit of peace. As soon as it got dark, they must have used those barricades and more to block off the 10 blocks. There were reports on campus that journalists were not allowed out of Pulitzer Hall, including Columbia’s own student journalists and the dean of the School of Journalism, under threat of arrest. Faculty and students who did not live on campus had been forbidden access to campus in the morning. There was no one around to witness. My partner and I had to use social media to see the hundreds of police in full riot gear, guns out, infiltrate Columbia’s Hamilton Hall, [where protesters had holed up](https://www.columbiaspectator.com/city-news/2024/05/04/forty-six-who-occupied-hamilton-released-charged-with-criminal-trespassing/), mirroring the 1968 protests that had occupied the same building. In the next few days, I was in meeting after meeting. Internally, we were told that the arrests had been peaceful and careful, with no student injuries. The same thing was repeated by [Mayor Adams](https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/337-24/transcript-mayor-eric-adams-briefs-media-recent-protests-columbia-university-nypd) and[ CNN](https://twitter.com/aayoub/status/1785501117029241151). Meanwhile, president Minouche Shafik had [violated faculty governance](https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2024/05/02/columbia-aaup-chapter-calls-for-vote-of-no-confidence-in-shafik-other-top-university-leadership/) and the university bylaws that she consult the executive committee before calling police onto campus. (The committee [voted unanimously against police intervention](https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2024/04/18/shafik-authorizes-nypd-to-sweep-gaza-solidarity-encampment-officers-in-riot-gear-arrest-over-100/).) **Read More:** [_Columbia Cancels Main Commencement Following Weeks of Pro-Palestinian Protests_](https://time.com/6975135/columbia-cancels-main-commencement-pro-palestinian-protests/) Then, Saturday morning, I got an email from a couple of writing students that they had been released from jail. I hadn’t heard that any of our students had been involved. They told me they hadn’t gotten food or water, or even their meds, for 24 hours. They had watched their friends bleed, kicked in the face by police. They said they had been careful not to damage university property. At least one cop busted into a locked office and [fired a gun](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/03/nyregion/nypd-columbia-shooting-hamilton.html), threatened by what my students called “unarmed students in pajamas.” In the mainstream media, the story was very different. The vandalism was blamed on students. Police showed off one of Oxford Press’s _Terrorism: A Very Short Introduction_. (This series of books offers scholarly introductions that help students prepare for classes, not how-to pamphlets teaching them to _do_ terrorism.) “I feel like I’m being gaslit,” one of my students said. I teach creative writing, and I am the author of a book about teaching creative writing and the origins of creative-writing programs in the early 20th century. The oldest MFA program in the country, the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, was funded by special-interest groups like the Rockefeller Foundation and, famously, the CIA, and was explicitly described by director Paul Engle as a tool to spread American values. **Read More:** [_'Why Are Police in Riot Gear?' Inside Columbia and City College's Darkest Night_](https://time.com/6973166/columbia-university-city-college-pro-palestinian-protests-arrests/) The way we teach creative writing is essential because it shapes what kinds of narratives will be seen as valuable, pleasurable, and convincing. Today’s writing students will record how our current events become history. One of the strategies Columbia took with its police invasion was to block access of faculty, students, and press to the truth. It didn’t want any witnesses. It wanted to control the story. For weeks, Columbia administration and the mainstream media has painted student protesters as violent and disruptive—and though there have been incidents of antisemitism, racism, and anti-Muslim hatred, [including a chemical attack on pro-Palestine protesters](https://www.columbiaspectator.com/videos/2024/01/24/serious-crimes-a-pro-palestinian-rally-turned-site-of-police-investigation-in-photos-and-videos/), I visited the encampment multiple times and saw a place of joy, love, and community that included explicit teach-ins on antisemitism and explicit rules against any hateful language and action. Students of different faiths protected each other’s right to prayer. Meanwhile, wary of surveillance and the potential use of facial recognition to identify them, they covered their faces. Faculty have become afraid to use university email addresses to discuss ways to protect their students. At one point, the administration [circulated documents](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/04/29/us/columbia-administrators-encampment.html) they wanted students to sign, agreeing to self-identify their involvement and leave the encampment by a 2 p.m. deadline or face suspension or worse. In the end, student radio WKCR reported that even students who did leave the encampment were suspended. In a [recent statement in the _Guardian_](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/04/columbia-university-student-protest-gaza) and [an oral history in _New York Magazine_](https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/columbia-university-protests-israel-gaza-campus.html), and through the remarkable coverage of WKCR, Columbia students have sought to take back the narrative. They have detailed the widespread support on campus for student protesters; the peaceful nature of the demonstrations; widespread [student wishes to divest](https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2024/04/22/columbia-college-overwhelmingly-passes-divestment-referendum/#:~:text=The%20referendum%20marks%20an%20increase,in%20which%201%2C771%20students%20participated.) financially from Israel, cancel the Tel Aviv Global Center, and end Columbia’s dual-degree program with Tel Aviv University; and the administration’s lack of good faith in negotiations. As part of the _Guardian_ statement, the student body says that multiple news outlets refused to print it. They emphasize their desire to tell their own story. In a time of mass misinformation, writers who tell the truth and who are there to witness the truth firsthand are essential and must be protected. My students in Columbia’s writing program who have been arrested and face expulsion for wanting the university to disclose and divest, and the many other student protesters, represent the remarkable energy and skepticism of the younger generation who are committed not only to witnessing but participating in the making of a better world. Truth has power, but only if there are people around to tell the truth. We must protect their right to do so, whether or not the truth serves our beliefs. It is the next generation of writers who understand this best and are fighting for both their right and ours to be heard. ## Transcript [00:00] I am a freshman journalism major at ET Austin, [00:03] and I work for the Daily Texan. [00:04] I am a freshman here at CLI. [00:07] And I work for the Daily Bruin as a video journalist. [00:10] I'm a junior at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. [00:13] I'm currently the editor in chief of the Daily Northwestern. [00:16] I'm a graduate student at Columbia journalism school. [00:19] I report for the S Zoom website at Columbia journalism School. [00:23] So I've been reporting on the encampments since they started two Thursdays ago. [00:29] Last year, there was the serial killer in Davis, [00:32] and I covered that for my paper. [00:34] And I thought that was as intense as journalism would get. [00:52] We do have a very unique perspective in that we're students. [00:57] And so we are seeing like [01:01] the protests and these issues affect our peers in our community directly. [01:07] I've been reporting on P Palestine protests since last semester. [01:11] And so I've gone to [01:14] quite a few protests that were organized by the same group of organizers. [01:20] And so I think being a familiar face also helps, [01:23] we are able to really connect with them and understand it in a way [01:29] that maybe national reporters or people who aren't there on the ground are able to. [01:41] Organizers of the demonstration were [01:44] definitely skeptical towards engaging with the media, [01:47] both with student media and with non university affiliated media. [01:51] On the first dada encampment, [01:52] the university said that non student media was not allowed on the law. [01:57] So they were basically restricted to [01:59] reporting on the other side of the fence on the sidewalk on the main road. [02:03] But we were there. Basically, 2047. [02:06] And I would say that with a lot of things, [02:07] the views and attitudes and behaviors range within the encampment, [02:11] there were some folks who were much more friendly and happy to [02:14] chat with us and some folks who really were not interested in engaging. [02:17] G we did give them things like anonymity when they asked for it because I mean, [02:22] we understand, like in a scenario like this. [02:25] They could face potential repercussions from the university. [02:30] But people are very willing to talk to us interson of the NPD had an impact. [02:36] I would say since the beginning, [02:38] they were pretty distrustful towards the media. [02:42] But I felt like after the I was there the first day and some people would talk to me. [02:50] But I think they were always reticent to talk. [02:55] I feel like it's not necessarily due to the NYPD because it's just [03:00] because this protest has been going on in Colombia for months. [03:06] In these months, they progressively [03:09] developed this form of distrust towards Columbia, towards the media. [03:14] We can say towards society, probably. [03:17] So it exploded, I think in the last two weeks. [03:23] Then eventually, the intervention of the NYPD just worsened the situation. [03:28] As of Wednesday night, we all wrote [03:30] our student media advisors number on [03:33] our arm so that we'd have it in case we were arrested. [03:38] Shortly after they arrested people and shortly [03:41] before they started dismantling the camp the encampment. [03:45] So they told us to get into [03:47] the pocerhle They pushed us inside and telling us not to get out. [03:52] Otherwise, we would have been arrested. [03:54] I think a big one was just like, [03:56] making sure that we had a plan and that we were all being very safe. [04:02] Initially, something that we struggled with on the photo side was, [04:05] do we want to show people's faces? [04:07] Because obviously, like, some people are being docks. [04:17] I have seen the daily Bron be criticized from both sides, [04:22] which in my mind, tells me that we're doing a good job at maintaining objectivity. [04:27] Tuesday night, I believe we were one of [04:29] the first outlets to call what happened an attack. [04:32] And other outlets were calling it at that point, [04:35] a clash between the two groups. [04:39] It was very much a one sided attack instigated by those counter protesters, [04:44] and I saw other media outlets adjusted the way they referred to that coverage to [04:48] mirror how we referred to it [04:50] because we were on the ground and we were in the midst of that. [04:54] The day I started reporting on this, my professors, [04:58] my CT Newsroom professors told me Francisco like we are not here for opinion, [05:03] so you just have to report. [05:11] This is really one of those rare moments where we can all kind [05:15] of acknowledge and understand that we're experiencing history in real time. [05:19] But knowing that folks are going to look back and look to student newspapers and [05:23] student journalism as the primary documents from this era of how things play out. [05:29] I think we're all acutely aware of the importance of getting it right. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6975618/columbia-protests-writing-students-truth/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6975618/columbia-protests-writing-students-truth/"},"headline":"My Writing Students Were Arrested at Columbia. 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