‘We need to build a movement to fight back,’ Grant Miner told the crowd
Grant Miner, a Columbia University graduate student who was expelled earlier this month for overtaking Hamilton Hall, gave a speech on campus on Thursday, telling anti-Israel protesters they had to “fight back.”
Miner, the president of Columbia’s graduate student union, Student Workers of Columbia, led a chant before giving the speech on the steps of Low Library, an administrative building. The union organized the protest, demanding “No research cuts. No ICE. No censorship. No layoffs.”
“Our workers, our students, our community members both in the campus and outside the campus are under attack, and we need to build a movement to fight back,” Miner said through a megaphone to a crowd of roughly 120 people. “Are you going to help me do that?”
Hey @Columbia – can you explain why Grant Miner, who was expelled for taking over Hamilton Hall, is still on campus and leading a protest today? You’ve been claiming that “discipline has been enforced” and that outsiders will be removed from campus. Sure doesn’t seem like it… pic.twitter.com/5tuFP3bdhq
— Columbia Jewish & Israeli Students ✡️🇮🇱 (@CUJewsIsraelis) March 27, 2025
He argued that “due process is something which is increasingly in short supply in this country” but said he was allowed on campus because his appeal is pending.
Still, Miner’s presence on campus comes amid questions over whether Columbia is enforcing the policies it told the Trump administration it implemented in a bid to restore more than $430 million in federal funds. Columbia interim president Katrina Armstrong, however, downplayed and denied that change was underway during a private Zoom call on Saturday with approximately 75 faculty members.
“Earlier this afternoon, the Students Workers of Columbia (SWC) held a rally on Columbia’s campus,” a university spokeswoman told the Washington Free Beacon. “Approximately 120 members of the community gathered. Our Public Safety and University Delegates carefully monitored the activity for violations of University rules and policies. All University activities today proceeded as normal, and our rules and policies were maintained.”
“Under University rules and procedures, students facing disciplinary sanctions have a right of appeal,” she added. “Student status remains unchanged while the appeal process is underway. The appellate process is underway; appeals will be considered by a panel of deans and will be completed by mid-April.”
After his speech, Miner led the protesters through campus and out Columbia’s main gates. He is seen in one video climbing the university’s fence while chanting, “When immigrant rights are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back.”
NOW: Columbia student workers march off campus to demand their union president Grant Miner and all other expelled students are reinstated and Mahmoud Khalil is released pic.twitter.com/w5QQcJsYjo
— BreakThrough News (@BTnewsroom) March 27, 2025
Miner, a self-described “medievalist,” is the son of veteran California lobbyist and former Arnold Schwarzenegger aide Paul Miner, who owns a $1.8 million Sacramento home, the Free Beacon reported. In October 2023, just two days after Hamas’s terror attack on Israel, the younger Miner was photographed at a New York City rally holding a sign that read, “Resistance against occupation is a human right.”
Also in attendance at the on-campus protest was Barnard College student and anti-Israel activist Maryam Iqbal, who was arrested during last spring’s illegal encampments at Columbia.
Student Workers of Columbia also organized and handed out masks at a campus rally on Monday to protest the Ivy League school’s policy reforms, which include new restrictions on face coverings during demonstrations. The protesters marched unimpeded.
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