A Columbia University graduate student went viral online after telling members of the media that protesters were at risk of dying or becoming severely ill if authorities did not deliver food and water to them.
“First of all, we’re saying that they’re obligated to provide food to students who pay for a meal plan here,” the student told reporters when asked about Columbia’s role providing food access for students occupying the campus building Hamilton Hall.
The student is reported to be Johannah King-Slutzky, an instructor and Ph.D. candidate at Columbia, according to National Review.
A Columbia student went viral online after telling members of the media that protesters were at risk of dying or becoming severely ill if authorities did not deliver food and water to them. (Getty Images / AP)
“I guess it’s ultimately a question of what kind of community and obligation Columbia feels it has to its students,” King-Slutzky said. “Do you want students to die of dehydration and starvation or get severely ill, even if they disagree with you?”
She continued: “If the answer is no then you should allow basic — I mean, it’s crazy to say since we’re on an Ivy League campus — but this is like, basic humanitarian aid we’re asking for, like could people please have a glass of water?”
“Columbia students who took over a campus building are demanding food and water as part of their basic human rights,” Outkick founder Clay Travis wrote. “Really.”
One reporter asked the student to explain her demands for food and water. “It seems like you’re saying, ‘we want to be revolutionaries, we want to take over this building, now would you please bring us some food,’” the reporter said. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, Pool)
“These are not the remarks, let alone the arguments, of a serious person,” Yale professor Nicholas Christakis wrote. “This is the way someone who has never been challenged to defend her views with facts and reason speaks. This is someone who thinks she is winning the battle of ideas simply by articulating her desires. Someone her university has not taught.”
“Every good revolutionary knows you have to pack snacks,” liberal commentator Joanne Carducci wrote on X.
“That this ends with ‘but the Grubhub’ might be the greatest commentary on the times we live in,” Carducci added.
“Her entire bio on Columbia’s website is about viewing everything through a lens of Marxism,” conservative commentator and show host Liz Wheeler wrote. “She’s a literal communist whining for someone to bring her her lunch box.”
One reporter asked the student to explain her demands for food and water. “It seems like you’re saying, ‘we want to be revolutionaries, we want to take over this building, now would you please bring us some food,’” the reporter said.
“No one’s asking them to bring anything,” she responded. “We’re asking them to not stop us from bringing basic humanitarian aid.”
Hamilton Hall on Columbia’s campus was cleared of protesters by the New York Police Department on Tuesday night, around 11 p.m. ET, nearly 24 hours after it was occupied by students.
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A spokesperson for Columbia shared a link to campus updates with Fox News Digital in an email.
Fox News’ Elizabeth Pritchett contributed to this report.