Student protesters walk out of Hillary Clinton’s classroom in Columbia.

Nearly 300 students packed Columbia University Wednesday afternoon for a two-hour lecture on women’s involvement in peace processes, given by Hillary Clinton and Keren Yarhi-Milo, the dean of Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs.

Not even halfway through class, about 30 students stood up and grabbed their computers and backpacks as part of a planned student walkout. They joined several dozen other protesters who gathered near the building’s lobby.

The demonstrators, who sat quietly in a common room in the International Affairs Building — many of them wearing face masks — protested what they saw as the school’s role in publicly shaming students whose photos appeared last week on the video screen panels of a truck that was spotted near campus. The screens showed students’ faces beneath the words “Columbia’s Leading Antisemites.” The students said the photos were taken from a “private and secure” online platform for students in the School of International and Public Affairs.

They demanded “immediate legal support for affected students” and “a commitment to student safety, well-being and privacy.”

The students whose images appeared on the video panels were members of groups that had signed a statement regarding the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, which read in part: “The weight of responsibility for the war and its victims unequivocally rests with the Israeli extremist. government.”

As Ms. Yarhi-Milo and Mrs. Clinton’s class ended around 4 p.m., the demonstrators fell silent, expecting the dean and the former secretary of state to soon walk past the gathered students. That time never came. Word spread that Mrs. Yarhi-Milo and Mrs. Clinton had left the building through a side door.

A Columbia spokeswoman said the university had no comment. The protest came the day after the school announced this a new task force on doxxing and student safety.