Columbia University has issued various punishments, including expulsions and degree revocations, against students involved in anti-Israel protests on campus, AFP reports.

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

The latest sanctions by Columbia stem from a library sit-in during 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 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.