The 63-Year-Old Career Activist Among the Protesters at Columbia

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Videos show Lisa Fithian, whom the police called a "professional agitator," working alongside protesters who stormed Hamilton Hall.

Scenes From a Standoff Outside Hamilton Hall

1. Pro-Palestinian demonstrators barricade an entrance to Hamilton Hall using a metal picnic table.

2. Two counterprotesters wearing blue shirts move to stand between the table and the door.

3. Pro-Palestinian demonstrators form a human chain in front of the door as counterprotesters attempt to push the table away from the building. Lisa Fithian then addresses the counterprotesters.

4. Lisa Fithian continues speaking to counterprotesters.

5. A struggle for control of the doorway takes place as Lisa Fithian speaks to counterprotesters.

6. A pro-Palestinian demonstrator begins a dialogue with one of the counterprotestors. Lisa Fithian continues to talk to counterprotesters.

7. A group of pro-Palestinian protesters surround the counterprotestors and removes one from his position in front of the entrance.

Among the throng of Columbia University student protesters gathered outside Hamilton Hall on campus early Tuesday morning was a gray-haired woman in her 60s.

In a video captured by The New York Times, the protesters can be seen trying to push their way toward the building as the woman — decades older than the crowd — pleads with two young counterprotesters trying to block them from barricading the occupied building.

"This is ridiculous," the woman says, as the men stand with their backs against the doors, apparently trying to keep protesters away from the building. "We're trying to end a genocide in Gaza."

The woman at the center of this encounter on the night protesters stormed and then occupied the building was Lisa Fithian, a longtime activist and trainer for left-wing protesters whom the Police Department would later publicly describe as a "confirmed professional agitator."

Ms. Fithian, 63, was not at Columbia when the police arrived on Tuesday night and made dozens of arrests. She had returned to the home where she was staying in New York, she said in an interview Tuesday night.

As pro-Palestinian protests have spread to campuses across the country, the movement has been heralded by supporters as a student-driven campaign opposing the Israeli offensive in Gaza. But some law enforcement officials and university officials have suggested that the demonstrations have been taken over by people with no ties to the colleges where encampments have sprung up.