Vincent Boudreau
Dear City College Community,
You may have seen reports of a protest that took place in Queens on January 8th, 2026. While the location was not on our campus, we are aware that a City College student-managed social media account encouraged attendance to this protest. The protest, held outside of a synagogue, was publicly billed as a demonstration against land sales in the West Bank. During the demonstration, participants can be heard chanting "death to the IDF" and "Say it loud, say it clear: We support Hamas here."
Social media posts from student organizations that utilize the college name and logo can be read to imply CCNY's support or acquiescence. Let me be clear: the language used and threat implied at that demonstration do not conform with the values we have worked to cultivate on our campus. I categorically condemn the call to violence in those chants or the support for organizations geared primarily toward inflicting violence. Any CCNY club that commits itself to violence in the service of any cause violates those values and will be subject to possible decertification as a registered club.
We reiterate our commitment to creating an environment where all members of our community can thrive and feel protected. CCNY has always convened campus communities composed of people whose views differed from one another, sometimes in radical and passionate terms. What united our campus, despite those differences, was a clear sense that the way forward lay in mutual engagement, and that mutual engagement required civil parameters. I commit the campus to the difficult, daily work of repairing those civil ramparts and moving forward on the mission to educate the whole people.
The entire proposition of a college for New York (both originally and since) rested on the idea that in this most global city, a college conceived in the broadest and most inclusive terms would prepare a core of graduates with the skills and disposition to forge a democratic society and respond to its needs with understanding and empathy. It's difficult to recall a moment in our history when this mission has been more vital or more under threat. Our greatest challenge today is also our greatest hope: that we will navigate difference, even contention, with grace and empathy. As we start a new year and a new semester, I urge all members of the campus community toward this goal, and pledge the resources and the energy of the campus to their achievement.
Vince Boudreau
President