new York
CNN
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The majority of Columbia students arrested during protests against Israel’s war in Gaza will return to school in the fall.

Dozens of students who were arrested and suspended in the spring will return to campus and enroll in classes while they await their disciplinary hearings. This is according to a report released Monday by a congressional committee investigating the school’s response to anti-Semitism.

The returning students include many who They were arrested during protests in late April, when the university first asked police to break up the campus encampments, as well as those who later barricaded themselves in Hamilton Hall, one of the campus buildings that was also occupied during the 1968 student protests.

Of the 40 students arrested by the NYPD on April 18, only two remain on suspension, according to the report. The rest are currently in good standing and awaiting a hearing, but 17 are still on “disciplinary probation.” Charges against those students were eventually dropped.

Twenty-two students were arrested on April 30 for occupying Hamilton Hall. Four of them remain in good standing, three are on provisional suspension, and one is on disciplinary probation following a previous hearing.

The report follows a request from the House Education and Workforce Committee for information about the students’ cases – part of a larger effort by House Republicans to combat anti-Semitism on college campuses and at Ivy League institutions.

Republican Representative Virginia Foxx, Chair of the Education Committee, said Columbia “waved the white flag in surrender and offered a free pass from prison to all those who participated in the protests.”

“The failure of Columbia’s spineless administration to hold students accountable who violate university rules and the law is scandalous and unacceptable,” Foxx said in a press release Monday. “Breaking into campus buildings or creating anti-Semitic, hostile environments like the encampment should never be allowed even the slightest leeway – the university’s willingness to do just that is reprehensible.”

The university said Tuesday that disciplinary proceedings are underway against many of the students involved in the disturbances, including some of those arrested. The school is working to expedite the process for this “large number of violations.”

“Columbia is committed to combating anti-Semitism and all forms of discrimination and to taking lasting, concrete actions for a campus where everyone in our community feels valued and can thrive,” a university spokesperson told CNN.

Columbia was the epicenter of pro-Palestinian student protests last school year, but the protests rocked universities across the country. Most protests were peaceful, but some turned violent and disrupted academic life on campus. Some Jewish and Muslim students reported being intimidated, harassed or physically attacked.

Some universities – like Yale and Brown – cleared their encampments on campus, while others erupted into chaos. At UNC Chapel Hill, classes were canceled and dozens of students were arrested. At Florida State University, at least five protesters were arrested. More than 1,000 people were arrested by police on various campuses.

According to a spokesman for Barnard, Columbia’s all-women’s college, the group spent this summer working on a plan to prepare for possible protests next semester, particularly on the one-year anniversary of the October 7 terrorist attacks on Israel.

Earlier this month, the university announced that only people with a valid Columbia University ID would be allowed to enter campus, while some entrances would remain closed.