Anti-Imperialism/Foreign Policy

The Takeover: An On-the-Ground Report by the Columbia Daily Spectator

Two weeks ago, with Columbia University melting down over a pro-Palestinian encampment at the center of campus, the editors at New York approached the Daily Spectator, the undergraduate newspaper, with an offer: Want to make our next cover story? Nobody knows the terrain better, and the Spec staff leapt at the chance. Their reporters interviewed dozens of sources, their photographers took portraits of more than 100 campus figures, and a poll gathered detailed opinions from more than 700 students, professors, and other members of the community. The resulting cover package also includes this epic oral history of the 17 days that shook Columbia to its core. If you have been astonished by the events there and want to know what it was like inside, this report is for you. We couldn’t be prouder of the Spec students for making it.

—Nick Summers, features editor, New York 

Our Campus. Our Crisis. Inside the encampments and crackdowns that shook American politics.

Photograph by Stella Ragas

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