NEW YORK — Columbia University officials and the student protesters behind a pro-Gaza encampment negotiated Friday past a school-set deadline to clear the schools’s main lawn — much to the dismay of a leading Jewish campus organization.

Brian Cohen, the Lavine Family executive director of Hillel, was sharply critical of the university allowing the encampment to continue, despite what university officials have said is a violation of school policies.

“It’s not my standard practice to be public about what is happening on campus,” he said at a news conference at Columbia’s Kraft Center for Jewish Student Life. “But I tried working with the University for months behind the scenes, and they have consistently failed to address the crisis on campus.”

“Unfortunately, it is going to take time to restore our universities to the values that they are supposed to uphold. But there is also one clear step we are calling on administrators to take today: Uphold your codes of conduct. Enforce your rules,” he told reporters.

The encampments at Columbia and other colleges across New York and the nation have come under fire over allegations of abusive and antisemitic rhetoric. At CCNY late Thursday, protesters called for the elimination of Israel as they chased off someone they said they knew was a “Zionist.”

At Columbia, the administration initially told the protesters they needed to clear out by midnight Tuesday, then extended the deadline 48 hours. The encampment remained in place Friday with visits by New York Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman, both Democrats. Despite rumors the NYPD was preparing to move in a second time, university officials said that was not the case. The police cleared the campus last week only to have the protesters return.

“There is a rumor that the NYPD has been invited to campus this evening,” the Columbia Office of the President said in a statement overnight Thursday. “This rumor is false.

“The talks have shown progress and are continuing as planned,” it continued.

For the last week, a small group of administrators and student organizers have been meeting to iron out a deal to dismantle a pro-Palestinian encampment. Students are demanding the university divest from Israel and reverse all disciplinary action against antiwar advocates.

“A formal process is underway and continues,” Columbia spokesman Ben Chang said Friday evening.

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