'Columbia Let Me Down': Indian Student Ranjani Srinivasan Hopes University Will 'Re-enrol' Her
Ranjani Srinivasan expressed uncertainty about whether she would feel safe returning to the US to complete her PhD, even if her visa is reinstated
Indian student Ranjani Srinivasan, who fled the United States after her visa was revoked for allegedly supporting Hamas, has said she feels that her university, Columbia University, has “let her down." The PhD student also hoped her enrolment at the university will be restored.
The 37-year-old doctoral student in Urban Planning at Columbia University in New York was forced to leave the US and seek refuge in Canada after receiving an email from the US Consulate in Chennai informing her that her student visa had been cancelled.
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She reportedly fled to Canada on the same day US immigration officers came searching for her after the visa revocation. In a desperate bid for safety, she booked a last-minute flight to Canada. Her visa was revoked on March 5, and she left for Canada on March 11.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Srinivasan, who arrived in the US on an F-1 student visa to pursue her studies, expressed her sense of betrayal by her university. “I spent five years at Columbia, working – I don’t know – maybe 100 hours a week sometimes… I never expected the institution to let me down. But it did," she said.
The Indian student further expressed uncertainty about whether she would feel safe returning to the US to complete her PhD, even if her visa is reinstated.
“I hope Columbia comes to its senses and re-enrols me," Srinivasan noted. “All the requirements for my PhD are complete, and whatever is left, I don’t even need to be in the US for. So I’m trying to appeal to Columbia to do that."
The US Department of Homeland Security had revoked her visa on the grounds that she had “advocated for violence and terrorism" and was labelled a “terrorist sympathiser." However, Srinivasan has rejected these claims, calling them absurd.
“If supporting the idea of human rights or ending a genocide is equated with supporting Hamas, then anyone in proximity to me – without me having done anything – can just be picked up and made an example of," the Indian student said in the same interview.
Srinivasan believes she was targeted due to her outspoken views in support of Palestinian rights and her criticism of Israel’s violence in Gaza on social media.
She further insisted that she was never part of any organised groups at the university, though she admitted to participating in pro-Palestinian protests in the past. She also pointed out that she wasn’t even in the US for much of April 2024, when student-led demonstrations intensified across campuses.
The US Department of Homeland Security had stated that Srinivasan “self-deported" using the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Home App, which allows undocumented immigrants to submit an ‘intent to depart’ form and leave voluntarily. However, Srinivasan clarified that she left using a visitor visa she had previously obtained for academic workshops and conferences.
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