Editing Barnard College (section)

== Controversies ==
In the spring of 1960, Columbia University president [[Grayson L. Kirk|Grayson Kirk]] complained to the president of Barnard that Barnard students were wearing inappropriate clothing. The garments in question were pants and [[Bermuda shorts]]. The administration forced the student council to institute a dress code. Students would be allowed to wear shorts and pants only at Barnard and only if the shorts were no more than two inches above the knee and the pants were not tight. Barnard women crossing the street to enter the Columbia campus wearing shorts or pants were required to cover themselves with a long coat.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0A15F73F5916738DDDA10A94DC405B808AF1D3 |title=Ban on Shorts Threatens Classic Barnard Couture |date=April 28, 1960 |work=The New York Times |page=1 |access-date=February 6, 2017 |archive-date=July 31, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220731165451/https://www.nytimes.com/1960/04/28/archives/ban-on-shorts-threatens-classic-barnard-couture-barnard-to-ban.html |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Barnard College Blue Book |pages=87–88 |chapter=Administrative Regulations: Campus Etiquette}}</ref>

In March 1968, ''[[The New York Times]]'' ran an article on students who cohabited, identifying one of the persons they interviewed as a student at Barnard College from [[New Hampshire]] named "Susan".<ref>{{Cite news |title=An Arrangement: Living Together for Convenience, Security, Sex |last=Klemesrud |first=Judy |date=March 4, 1968 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> Barnard officials searched their records for women from New Hampshire and were able to determine that "Susan" was the pseudonym of a student (Linda LeClair) who was living with her boyfriend, a student at Columbia University. She was called before Barnard's student-faculty administration judicial committee, where she faced the possibility of expulsion. A student protest included a petition signed by 300 other Barnard women, admitting that they too had broken the regulations against cohabitating. The judicial committee reached a compromise and the student was allowed to remain in school, but was denied use of the college cafeteria and barred from all social activities. The student briefly became a focus of intense national attention. Barnard president Martha Peterson overruled the committee and expelled LeClair.<ref name="rosenberg">{{cite web |url=http://beatl.barnard.columbia.edu/cuhistory/archives/Rosenberg/woman_question.htm |title=The Woman Question |last=Rosenberg |first=Rosalind |date=September 21, 1999 |publisher=Barnard College |access-date=July 26, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080705143127/http://beatl.barnard.columbia.edu/cuhistory/archives/Rosenberg/woman_question.htm |archive-date=July 5, 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>''Newsweek'', April 8, 1968, p. 85 and ''Newsweek'', April 29, 1968, p. 79–80.{{title missing|date=April 2025}}</ref><ref name="Bailey19992">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rq8FS3juFzAC |title=Sex in the Heartland |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |year=1999 |isbn=0-674-00974-6 |page=201 |author-last1=Bailey|author-first1=Beth L. |access-date=February 19, 2016 |archive-date=August 13, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210813091056/https://books.google.com/books?id=Rq8FS3juFzAC |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.columbiaspectator.com/the-eye/2022/09/06/getting-a-room-how-a-barnard-student-transformed-columbias-dorms/ |title=Getting a Room: How a Barnard Student Transformed Columbia's Dorms |last=Cheng |first=Annie |date=September 7, 2022 |last2=Kilgore-Brown |first2=Lilienne Shore |department=The Eye |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221005192140/https://www.columbiaspectator.com/the-eye/2022/09/06/getting-a-room-how-a-barnard-student-transformed-columbias-dorms/ |archive-date=October 5, 2022 |url-status=live |newspaper=[[Columbia Daily Spectator]]}}</ref>

In February 2025, Barnard College expelled two students following their disruption of a "History of Modern Israel" class at Columbia University on January 21, 2025. The students interrupted the lecture taught by Professor Avi Shilon, a lecturer with Columbia University's Institute for Israel and [[Jewish studies|Jewish Studies]], and distributed materials which condemned the course as "[[Zionism|Zionist]] propaganda".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Yang |first=Maya |date=February 27, 2025 |title=Students chant support for Palestinians at Barnard College protest in New York |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/27/barnard-college-palestinian-protest-new-york |access-date=March 3, 2025 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Otterman |first=Sharon |date=February 27, 2025 |title=Pro-Palestinian Demonstrators Stage Sit-in at Barnard Over Expulsions |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/26/nyregion/barnard-college-student-sit-in.html |access-date=March 3, 2025 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> In response to these expulsions, on February 26, 2025, several dozen pro-Palestinian student protesters staged a sit-in at Barnard's Milbank Hall, outside the office of Dean Leslie Grinage. The protesters demanded the reversal of the expulsions, amnesty for students disciplined for pro-Palestinian actions, and a public meeting with college administrators. During the protest, a Barnard employee was physically assaulted and required hospitalization.<ref name="Oladipo 2025">{{Cite news |last=Oladipo |first=Gloria |date=February 27, 2025 |title=Pro-Palestinian students stage sit-in at Barnard College to protest expulsions |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/27/barnard-palestine-protest |access-date=March 3, 2025 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Harvey |first=Emma Tucker, Lex |date=February 27, 2025 |title=Pro-Palestinian student protesters clash with Barnard College staff during sit-in to protest student expulsions |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/27/us/barnard-columbia-israel-gaza-protests-hnk/index.html |access-date=March 3, 2025 |website=CNN |language=en}}</ref> Barnard's faculty members Nara Milanich, professor of history, and Severin Fowles, professor of anthropology and American studies, served as mediators between the protesters and the administration. The sit-in lasted for over six hours before an agreement was reached to disperse, with a private meeting between the protesters and administrators scheduled for the following day.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ragas |first=Stella |title=In Focus: Six and a half hours in the Milbank Hall sit-in |url=https://www.columbiaspectator.com/photo-essays/2025/03/02/in-focus-six-and-a-half-hours-in-the-milbank-hall-sit-in/ |access-date=March 3, 2025 |website=Columbia Daily Spectator}}</ref><ref name="Oladipo 2025" />