The Ivy League school has said it will blacklist student groups for affiliating with CUAD and claimed no recognized groups were doing so
Columbia-Barnard Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA), a recognized student group, says it is working “to plan actions and liaise with Columbia University Apartheid Divest [CUAD],” the student organization that wished “death to America” after President Donald Trump initiated military operations against Iran last month and that organized the anti-Israel encampment that fomented chaos on campus in 2024. That appears to violate the Ivy League school’s “zero tolerance” policy toward CUAD—and its recent claim that no recognized groups are affiliated with it.
Columbia touted that policy in a March 1 statement, saying that “last year the University took the step of requiring all recognized student groups, including those who had previously affiliated with ‘CUAD’ … to acknowledge and comply with the University’s Zero Tolerance policy in order to retain their official recognition.”
“All currently recognized student groups have no affiliation with the group that calls itself ‘CUAD,'” Columbia said. “The University stands by its Zero Tolerance policy.” The statement came after CUAD posted “Death to America” in Persian in the wake of President Donald Trump’s opening salvo of strikes on Iran.
YDSA’s official Columbia webpage, however, includes a link to an interest form that says the group coordinates with other banned “leftist groups”—Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP)—to “plan actions and liaise with Columbia University Apartheid Divest.” The form says it’s for the 2024-2025 school year, but YDSA included a link to it in an August 19 Instagram post.
The YDSA form and subsequent post undercut Columbia’s claim that no recognized student groups are affiliated with CUAD—and could land YDSA in hot water with the Ivy League school.
A Columbia spokesman said the university is “investigating reports that this student group violated our policy” and reiterated that recognized student groups must comply with its zero tolerance policy.
“Violations of the Zero Tolerance [policy] may result in derecognition, loss of funding or access to University resources, or other consequences consistent with University policies,” he said.
Any banned groups YDSA works with, including CUAD, SJP, and JVP, can reap the benefits of YDSA’s status as a recognized student group, such as access to campus spaces and funding. Columbia suspended its SJP and JVP chapters in November 2023 “after the two groups repeatedly violated University policies related to holding campus events.” Although they weren’t named in the zero tolerance policy, Columbia has prohibited recognized student groups from working with them and has canceled campus events that included their involvement.
YDSA has long collaborated with CUAD online. On July 22, it co-published an Instagram post alongside the account “columbia4palestine,” which CUAD has used to share footage of its illegal demonstrations after Meta banned a previous account bearing the group’s name. The post condemned Columbia for suspending some 80 students arrested in a May library storming organized by CUAD and noted that a “full press release” on the matter could be found in its bio—the link, which was still available as of Friday afternoon, points to an official CUAD statement.
Other banned student groups have indicated that they work with YDSA to get around Columbia’s disciplinary actions.
A leader for the Columbia chapter of the left-wing Students for a Democratic Society said it collaborates with YDSA “because they get funding from Columbia workspaces.” The group has tied itself to illegal actions alongside CUAD, including its posters appearing alongside red inverted triangles—a symbol Hamas uses to denote Israeli targets—painted in a campus bathroom and promoting a protest outside a historic Manhattan synagogue, at which a mob threw bottles and sticks at Holocaust survivors.
YDSA has been allied with CUAD and the anti-Israel groups long before Columbia issued its zero tolerance policy. It participated in the illegal anti-Israel encampment in April 2024 and encouraged its supporters to send Venmo donations to CUAD soon after it formed.
In recent months, YDSA has hosted anti-ICE trainings and organizing efforts aimed at “building socialism at Columbia.” It also campaigned for New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani, a DSA member who defended the phrase “globalize the intifada.”
Neither YDSA nor any of the unrecognized student groups responded to requests for comment.
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