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Columbia University capitulated to an extraordinary ultimatum by the Trump administration to alter its policies. On Friday, the University agreed to place its Middle East Studies department under new supervision, modify its protest and student discipline protocols, and, controversially, implement a new definition of antisemitism. Failure to comply would risk losing billions of dollars in federal aid. Additionally, the University promised to increase “intellectual diversity” by hiring new faculty at the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies.
The letter detailing these changes, which was authored by interim president Katrina Armstrong, was published earlier today. Opposition from faculty and advocates for free speech surfaced almost immediately. Critics condemned the presidents Trump’s unprecedented interference regarding the institution's academic freedoms.
“Columbia’s capitulation endangers academic freedom and campus expression nationwide,” Donna Lieberman, New York Civil Liberties Union Executive Director said in a statement.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration pulled $400 million in research grants and other funding over the university’s handling of protests against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Federal officials demanded that the university immediately implement nine academic and security policy reforms in exchange for these funds and additional grants the university planned to receive, amounting to billions of dollars.
On Friday replying to an inquiry, Armstrong suggested Columbia was going to comply with almost all of them. Among other things, the university is going to remove certain students’ disciplinary actions for protesting enforced in the past, and place new public safety officers who will have arrest powers on campus.
Students as a cohort ‘For the Purpose of Masking Their Identity’ will no longer be allowed to wear masks outdoors on campus. But those worn for medical or religious purposes will be exempted.
The University shall also assign a senior provost, who will evaluate the leadership and curriculum of a few international studies units, in order to make sure that “the academic services are providing for all areas in a firm and equitable fashion”.
The unilateral surrender, if this is what it was, was of Columbia’s most radical Middle Eastern South Asian and African Studies Department … which the Trump administration insistently demanded Columbia place into ‘academic receivership for a minimum of five years’ came with the most harshest conditions MIT had of capitulation.
The Trump Administration has claimed Columbia University is “studiously ignoring blatant antisemitism,” a charge leveled against the massive protests and counterprotests initiated by the university in the recesses of spring and which escalated into a multitude of other colleges, something the demonstrators vehemently contradict.
In her letter, Armstrong stated that the university has made an effort to “address the legitimate concerns raised both from within and without our Columbia community, including by our regulators, with respect to the discrimination, harassment, and antisemitic acts that our Jewish community has endured.”
“The way Columbia and Columbians have been portrayed is hard to reckon with,” she added. “We have challenges, yes, but they do not define us.”
Columbia has come under fire from the Trump Administration in the past weeks, putting the campus in a state of crisis and raising fears of further retaliation at colleges around the country.
On March 8, federal immigration officials arrested Trojan Khalil, a well known Palestinian activist and legal permanent resident, in his university owned apartment building. Trump characterized this as the “first of many” deportation attempts.
Trump's education secretary has publicly stated on many occasions that the department intends to increase scrutiny of Columbia. At the same time, he told other extented universities that their funding will be cut if a more aggressive stance is not adopted.
His government has reported the launching of probes into the 52 universities over their diversity, equity, and inclusion activities. Additionally, his administration has withheld for the time being about $175 million in federal aid to the University of Pennsylvania because of a transgender swimmer who competed for the school in 2022.
On Friday, free speech advocates cautioned the response by Columbia to Trump’s threat would be felt outside the Manhattan campus all over the world.
"Columbia folded under state power," said Mr. Tyler Coward, who heads the government relations legal unit at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. “Columbia, which is so resourceful and powerful, succumbing to government demands that are antithetical to the premise of free speech is frightening- what’s in store for other colleges?”
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