Update on Morningside Campus Access

Dear members of the Columbia community:

For those who have returned to Morningside this week, you have seen that our CUID requirement for access to the Morningside campus is still in place. All of us appreciate that an open campus supports our academic pursuits, enriches the experience of our students, and connects us to our neighbors, New York City, and the world beyond. Perhaps most importantly, an open campus symbolizes our commitment to an open mind and open dialogue, fundamental tenets of our mission and our history. We have made progress toward the goal of fully reopening the Morningside campus and moving beyond access requirements, but we still have more work to do.

Over the last months, we have gained a much deeper understanding of how many students, faculty, and staff did not feel welcome or safe on the Morningside campus last spring, whether from the disruption of the encampments and associated protests and incidents or the actions and presence of the NYPD. Unfortunately, recent events have shown that our community continues to face a significant risk of disruption on the Morningside campus, including from outside demonstrators, threatening our community members’ sense of safety, and creating the potential need to bring the NYPD on campus. We have a duty to ensure that everyone in our community is safe, feels welcome, and can fully participate in our academic mission.

Given this situation, we have been working–and continue to work–to create the conditions that will enable us fully to open the Morningside campus as soon as it is possible. We are also working hard to address the challenges created by requiring a CUID to access campus:

• Public Safety and IT teams are continually upgrading campus access protocols and addressing complaints about the system. We are implementing a new approach that will be in place in early February to streamline access for alumni, our Morningside Heights and West Harlem neighbors, family of faculty, and university guests that will be in place during any period when we must restrict access at the gates for safety purposes.
• We have expanded the number of University delegates and enhanced their training so they are more effective in supporting and managing demonstrations consistent with our rules and policies.
• We have improved the training and capabilities of the public safety workforce to be better equipped to address disruptive events and other risks to our mission and community.
• The Senate Rules of University Conduct Committee, Rules Administrator, and Office of Public Safety continue to work together on University rules and policies that govern demonstrations and on-campus events, including addressing the challenge of identifying masked individuals when potential rule or policy violations are reported. Masking makes it difficult for Public Safety to distinguish between outside demonstrators and members of our university community.
• We have convened a Morningside Campus Access Advisory Committee to review information, including input from external partners, evaluate the tradeoffs, and weigh in on strategies to ensure that all groups feel welcome and safe on campus when the gates are open.

We will provide additional updates on this work here. Please continue to share your feedback and provide suggestions at the Inclusive Public Safety Advisory Committee website. Our goal is to achieve as quickly as possible the conditions that enable us to open the Morningside campus gates and ensure a safe environment where everyone feels welcome on our campus. I am confident that we are up to the challenge.

Sincerely,

Katrina Armstrong
Interim President, Columbia University in the City of New York