The gates were originally shut because of the anti-Israel protests.
The Columbia Spectator reports:
Mamdani threatens to sue Columbia to open campus gates
Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration is threatening to sue Columbia to open its campus gates.
In a stipulation filed in New York Supreme Court on Tuesday, the Mamdani administration said it intends to take “prompt” legal action against Columbia if College Walk—the thoroughfare that runs through the University’s Morningside Heights campus—is not “immediately” opened to the public.
The agreement marks a stunning reversal for the city which had previously aligned with Columbia under former Mayor Eric Adams, opposing a lawsuit brought by Morningside Heights residents alleging that Columbia violated the law by restricting campus access to nonaffiliates. The city has taken a different posture since the election of Mamdani, who grew up in Morningside Heights and whose father, Mahmood Mamdani, is a Columbia professor.
The mayor’s office changed its position in a Sept. 3 legal filing and made clear its intention to be dismissed from the case in a Sept. 16 court appearance. The Tuesday filing, however, marks the first explicit threat of legal action by the city against Columbia over reopening its campus gates.
“As the property owner, Columbia has the legal right and responsibility to manage access to College Walk, including taking appropriate measures to protect our community and the continuity of our academic operations,” a University spokesperson wrote in a statement to Spectator.
As part of the Tuesday agreement, the city, mayor, and police commissioner were dropped from the ongoing lawsuit.
The city’s law department declined to comment beyond the filings. City Hall and the New York Police Department did not respond to requests for comment on their withdrawal.
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