Columbia switches to hybrid learning amid protests over Israel's war in Gaza

NEW YORK (AP) — Columbia University’s main campus will switch to hybrid learning for the rest of the semester amid protests over Israel’s war with Hamas that have roiled colleges across the U.S., officials announced.

“Safety is our highest priority as we strive to support our students’ learning and all the required academic operations,” the Ivy League university’s provost, Angela V. Olinto, and chief operating officer, Cas Holloway, said in a statement late Monday.

The move came after more than 100 pro-Palestinian demonstrators who had camped out on Columbia’s upper Manhattan campus were arrested last week.

Students have protested Israel’s war in Gaza at many campuses in recent weeks, including at New York University a few miles south of Columbia, where an encampment swelled to hundreds of protesters and police began to make arrests Monday night.