Unidentified protesters splashed red paint on the iconic “Alma Mater” statue (1903) at Columbia University’s Manhattan campus on Tuesday, September 3, the first day of classes. This protest seems to be linked to a call from the group Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) urging students to “shut it down” and highlighting that “Gazan students have no universities left to which they can return.”

Photos of the paint-covered statue were shared by Students for Justice for Palestine, recently banned by Meta, along with CUAD on X, though neither group claimed responsibility for the act. It may have been carried out by an autonomous group, a term used by both CUAD and SJP to describe those who previously organized the occupation of Hamilton Hall and a protest outside the residence of former President Minouche Shafik before her resignation.

“This act highlighted the student body’s refusal to forget the actions of the same administration that are now welcoming us with naive yet predictable pomp and circumstance,” said Anand Chitnis, a senior at Columbia and vice president of campus life for the student council. “From what I can see, we, the students, refuse to accept the administration’s surface-level amnesia regarding the past semester,” Chitnis added.

The maintenance workers used a power washer to clean the paint from the “Alma Mater” statue. By the end of the day, Columbia’s official Instagram account featured a photo of students posing in front of the restored statue.

Created by artist Daniel Chester French, who also sculpted the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., the “Alma Mater” is a significant symbol on campus. Students frequently pose in front of the statue at the start of classes and again during graduation ceremonies.

Following Hamas’s attack on October last year and Israel’s ongoing military actions in Gaza, the statue has gained new relevance. Its central location made it a focal point during the student protests in April, which preceded the police raid of Hamilton Hall by hundreds of NYPD officers.

The statue was near where students booed Speaker of the House Mike Johnson during his speech that called for the arrest of students accused of promoting “hatred and antisemitism.” Organizers also used the area as a hub for communication, holding press conferences there.

For Anand, the protest was not the most distracting aspect of the first day of classes. “The closed gates were more disruptive than any protest, causing students and staff to get stuck in long lines trying to get to class,” Anand noted.

In response to the spring protests, the university introduced a color-coded access system to regulate when students, faculty, and non-affiliates can enter or are restricted from campus. This new policy resembles the pandemic-era contact tracing system that limited students’ movement based on their assigned color. “I long for the days when protests were a proud part of the university community and a means for achieving real change,” Anand expressed.

Sayart / Amia Nguyen, amyngwyen13@gmail.com