Singer Seeger Joins Protest at Columbia

With folk singer Pete Seeger leading them in song, hundreds of Columbia University students continued Monday to protest the school’s ties to South Africa and defied orders to stop barricading a campus building.

Faculty members organized in support of the students and threatened to begin holding classes off campus to protest the university’s South African investments and its handling of the student demonstration.

Several hundred student demonstrators cheered wildly Monday when Seeger appeared in front of Hamilton Hall, where the front doors have been chained shut by protesters since the start of the demonstration last Thursday.

At least 100 demonstrators have been in front of the building around the clock since Thursday. They have vowed to stay until the university agrees to withdraw its investments from corporations doing business in South Africa. Such investments make up about $30 million of the school’s $864-million endowment.