Mamdani Backs Reopening Columbia University Campus To Public After Pro-palestine Protests Prompted Shutdown

NEW YORK — Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration is coming out in favor of restoring public access to Columbia University’s main Manhattan campus, reversing his predecessor’s support for keeping it closed due to safety concerns over pro-Palestinian protests.

The Mamdani administration’s announcement, spelled out in a new Manhattan Supreme Court filing, doesn’t mean the campus will reopen to the public immediately. The university ultimately needs to make that decision.

But the move from Mamdani, a longtime critic of Israel who got his own political start in pro-Palestinian activism, puts pressure on the university. The situation is deeply fraught for Columbia, which landed in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump in 2024, as his administration tried to strip funding from the university over allegations that it wasn’t doing enough to crack down on antisemitism on campus.

A Columbia spokesperson declined to comment on a pending legal matter.

Columbia first restricted access to its Morningside Heights campus in late October 2023, so that only students with valid identification, faculty and staff could come on university grounds. At the time, university officials were concerned that outside agitators were taking part in large-scale encampments cropping up on campus to protest the military campaign Israel launched in Gaza in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 terror attack.

The campus closure prompted a group of Manhattan residents to sue the university and the city government, alleging the restrictions violated an easement Columbia received decades ago requiring it to keep the campus publicly accessible. Former Mayor Eric Adams sided with Columbia, arguing that sealing the campus was justified on public safety grounds.

In a court filing Thursday, Rachel Moston, an attorney in Mamdani’s Law Department, wrote that the city is now reversing Adams’ position, including by withdrawing a filing the prior administration made in the case that took no position on whether a campus walkway should be reopened.

“The City supports reopening of the walkway through the Columbia University Campus to the public,” Moston wrote in the new filing.

The Mamdani administration’s reversal received cheers from City Council Majority Leader Shaun Abreu, who represents the area and argued it’s outrageous for Columbia to seal its campus while benefiting “enormously” from the city, including through “millions in tax breaks.”

“They should be ashamed for how they have treated the community that has always accommodated them,” Abreu said in a statement. “The closed gates represent a deep betrayal of the spirit of openness and public service that we expect from our institutions of higher learning.”

Columbia’s main uptown campus, which stretches six city blocks, has now remained closed to the public for nearly three years. Access is currently limited to valid Columbia ID holders and pre-approved guests.

The university also has a campus access form for residents who live in the surrounding neighborhoods if they want to access the campus.

As it relates to the feud with Trump, Columbia reached a settlement with his administration last year that critics argued amounted to capitulation to the Republican president.

The Columbia campus closure isn’t the only issue Mamdani has leaned in on to bolster his pro-Palestinian bonafides. Earlier this year, he rescinded a pair of Adams executive orders that the former mayor argued were aimed at combating antisemitism, but which critics said conflated criticism of Israel’s government with hate speech.