The Transport Workers Union condemned student protesters from Wednesday’s Barnard sit-in for allegedly injuring a public safety responder and Barnard for “consistently ignoring officers’ safety concerns.”
TWU’s statement, titled “TWU Blasts Barnard Protesters, Criticizes College,” described a 41-year-old officer, who is represented by TWU Local 264, being “pushed and shoved during the stampede” as protesters entered Milbank Hall at 4 p.m.
A New York Police Department spokesperson told Spectator Wednesday night that the department had a report on file for an assault at around 4:09 p.m. “in the vicinity of” 606 W. 120th Street—Milbank’s address. As of 4:43 p.m. Thursday, no arrests had been made for the assault, an NYPD spokesperson told Spectator.
“He was pinned by the rushing crowd against a beam separating the two doors,” the TWU wrote in its statement. “One protester lowered his shoulder and slammed into the worker like a linebacker.”
A protester in Milbank told Spectator Wednesday night that the officer was “putting his arms around a student and twisting until a student fell to the ground.”
“It was people trying to help that student, that is how that guard got injured,” the protester said.
After the incident, the employee requested to be taken to a hospital for evaluation because he was experiencing “chest tightness, shortness of breath, and soreness in his neck and body,” according to the statement.
At around 8:34 p.m. Wednesday, a Barnard spokesperson sent Spectator a statement describing the assault.
“Earlier today, a small group of masked protesters forcibly entered Milbank Hall and physically assaulted a Barnard employee, sending them to the hospital,” Robin Levine, Barnard’s vice president for strategic communications, wrote in the statement.
“In the eyes of some of these trust-fund baby ideologues, harming the blue-collar TWU workforce at Barnard is seen as acceptable collateral damage in their quest to advance their political cause,” TWU International President John Samuelsen said in the union’s statement.
After the Hamilton Hall occupation last spring, Samuelson released a statement condemning Columbia for “failing to protect union members,” specifically referencing two custodians who were allegedly held against their will inside Hamilton Hall. The union was exploring legal action against both the University and the protesters in Hamilton Hall, according to the May 2024 statement.
Samuelson also wrote a letter to then-University President Minouche Shafik, saying “Columbia University epically failed to protect the safety of these university employees, who were forced to fight their way out of the building.” He added, “Columbia also failed a TWU-represented Security Officer who was subjected to verbal abuse by aggressive and threatening protesters who broke into the building.”
Source: Columbia Spectator