The sanctions, which a student group said targeted nearly 80 people, come as the New York institution negotiates with President Donald Trump’s administration to restore US$400 million in cut federal funding.

Trump has applied intense pressure on the prestigious university and others, accusing them of failing to address alleged anti-Semitism amid nationwide protests last year against Israel’s war in Gaza.

Columbia, which was the epicentre of the campus protests, has agreed to implement a series of policy reforms in an attempt to regain the federal funding, sparking anger from many students.

Fellow Ivy League institution Harvard has also been targeted with billions in funding cuts, but is fighting the pressure campaign in court.

The latest sanctions by Columbia stem from a library sit-in this past May, as well as an encampment set up during alumni weekend in spring 2024, the university said in a statement.

The library protest disrupted hundreds of students during an exam study period, it said, with punishments including “probation, suspensions (ranging from one year to three years), degree revocations, and expulsions.”

“The University does not release individual disciplinary results of any student,” the statement said.

It did not specify which punishments had been issued for the spring 2024 encampment, which occurred after larger protests – including the occupation of an academic building – but Columbia said it was “the final set of findings from that period.”

The student group Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), which calls for the school to cut all financial ties with Israel, said the library-related sanctions “hugely exceed precedent for teach-ins or non-Palestine-related building occupations.”

“We will not be deterred. We are committed to the struggle for Palestinian liberation,” the group said.