A group of Columbia University students began offering “friends and family access” to the campus Monday evening, using a loophole in the school’s visitor policy to let members of the public through its gates while official public access remains shuttered.
It has been nearly three years since the general public could freely enter the Morningside Heights campus. Locals once routinely cut through the grounds as a shortcut to the East Side, but that changed in October 2023 as pro-Palestine protests erupted around the university. By spring 2024, protesters had established a large encampment on the South Lawn, further restricting access to the grounds. After multiple police raids and years of continued restrictions, Columbia remains closed to the public.
Criticism of the university’s gate policy has mounted in recent months, with elected officials rallying outside the campus in support of reopening it. Mayor Zohran Mamdani has also called for a policy change, threatening legal action if the university fails to restore public access.
But Columbia President Jennifer Mnookin reaffirmed the university’s position in a statement ahead of the fall semester in September.
“It is the University’s responsibility both to protect the safety of those who study, teach, work, and live on our campus and also to preserve the conditions necessary for our academic mission to flourish. That means taking reasonable measures to prevent disruptions that interfere with essential University activities,” part of the statement read.
With the university standing firm, students said on Sunday they were taking matters into their own hands.
Setting up what they call a “People’s Kiosk” outside the university gates at West 116th Street and Broadway on Oct. 18, the students are using their own campus access privileges to help neighborhood residents get inside. Under the university’s visitor system, students can generate QR codes for friends and family members. The students are distributing those codes to the public as a form of protest against the continued closure.
At the kiosk, students set up a table with cardboard signs reading “It’s Fun Inside” and “The People’s Kiosk,” offering passersby a way to enter the grounds.
“It’s especially important now, given Mayor Mamdani’s recent pressure on the school. He’s threatened to sue if Columbia doesn’t immediately open campus access, and we also just think it’s been far too long. It’s unacceptable that the gates have been closed for three years, and there needs to be some solution,” student Josh Cohen said.
Cohen said the group came up with the plan Sunday ahead of a night market and performances scheduled to take place on campus throughout the evening. Each participating student can generate five QR codes, and with dozens taking part, they hope to admit as many people as possible.
“We’ve already signed five people in the past 30 minutes, and we want to sign in as many people as possible,” Cohen added. “The student body stands with the community, that there’s overwhelming support for the gates being opened, and that we’re ready to take action.”
The workaround appeared to be working Sunday evening, with entire families making their way onto the university grounds.
