If Columbia University wants to establish financial relations with the federal government, then the Ivy League institutions will need to overhaul its discipline process, ban masks, expel some students, conduct a review of academic departments, make their campuses safe “full law enforcement agencies” and reform their enrollment practices.
These are just some of the sweeping and unprecedented demands made by the Trump administration in its letter to institutions in Manhattan on Thursday. They were less than a week after canceling $400 million in federal grants and contracts. Colombia must respond by March 20.
“We hope you will immediately adhere to these critical next steps,” wrote three Trump officials. “After that, we hope to have a dialogue on immediate and long-term structural reforms that will restore Colombia to its original mission of innovative research and academic excellence.”
Colombia is demanding escalation, as Colombia faces pressure from the White House and pressure to comply with students and faculty.
“We are in a state of shock and skepticism, and we are working with the administration … reaffirming freedom of expression and co-governance of campuses and resisting all efforts by Trump to seize academic decisions from academia,” said Jean Howard, a member of the executive committee of the Columbia chapter of the United States University professor. “Our administration has been cautious in dealing with Trump. We hope they will take a more aggressive posture in the future.”
A Colombia spokesman told Internal Advanced ED Officials are reviewing the letter, but do not say whether the university complies with the requirements on Friday. Several experts in free speech and senior policy say the letter constitutes an unprecedented attack on higher education, which could threaten fundamental principles such as academic freedom. These requirements do not appear to be derived from any particular legal authority, and also provide another hint of how President Trump reshapes higher education.
“Conquering colleges is a sign of autocracy,” said Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the First Amendment Institute of Columbia, in a statement. “No one has any fantasy about what is going on here.”
But the Trump administration said the cancellation of grants and contracts was necessary because Colombia “has continued to take no action in the face of ongoing harassment from Jewish students.” Officials said in the letter that the university “has fundamentally failed to protect American students and faculty from anti-Semitic violence.”
Create tension
Ted Mitchell, chairman of the U.S. Board of Education, criticized the letter as an “outrageous” example of “extreme federal over-excess”, adding that institutional autonomy is a key part of U.S. higher education.
“For the federal government, it’s completely reasonable to hold all these institutions accountable for civil rights laws, and we hope that’s completely reasonable,” he said. “But for the changes in the government that prescribes academic structure, which are basically changes in the curriculum and reduces research, it’s pale.”
One of the 12 requests of the letter is that Colombia puts the Middle East, South Asia and African research sectors in academic takeover positions for at least five years. This means that teachers lose control of the department and the university takes the external chairperson accountable. The letter did not state why officials focused on this particular department. However, it is worth noting that the academic department is home to Joseph Massad, a controversial tenured professor who has accused him of alleging anti-Semitic statements against anti-Israel and anti-Semitic statements.
Federal scrutiny of universities and universities, especially Republicans, follows a wave of pro-Palestinian protests in the fall of 2023 and spring of 2024.
Columbia was in the center of the review, especially after a sudden appearance of camp on the central lawn of a small campus in Manhattan last April. The protests finally reached their finale in early May, when students occupied a campus building and New York City police finally rushed into the hall and arrested the people inside.
Although other academies face protests and are accused of unfortunate reports of anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination, Colombia is in trouble with protesters and is one of the few to introduce law enforcement. But that didn’t stop the Trump administration from targeting universities, nor did it lead to Colombia demarcating a line and starting a counterattack.
On Thursday, the same day the letter was sent, the Colombian chapter had student sanctions related to the building profession. These sentences range from years of suspension and expulsion to temporary revocation of graduates.
Professors and other experts warn that federal reviews, including high-profile grilles and subpoenas from Capitol Hill, could have devastating consequences for universities. But the alarm escalated to a significant escalation when the Trump administration bypassed typical investigative procedures for civil rights violations and cut Colombia’s chances of getting grants and contracts.
The cuts made by Trump’s novel multi-troop anti-Semitism task force were the first, but not the last.
The task force has said at least 10 universities are under review, including Harvard University and the University of California, Berkeley. Meanwhile, the Civil Rights Office is investigating allegations related to anti-Semitism at at least 60 universities.
Ryan Enos, a Harvard administration professor, said Columbia needs to reject the demands, while other universities need to speak in order to defend higher education. He said Colombia might not be able to defend itself if it was left alone.
“Other universities must defend Columbia because it’s not only about Columbia,” Enos said. “The Trump administration is trying to attack all higher education and Columbia cannot defend itself.”
Frustrations abound
External policy analysts and scholars on both sides of the political scope are frustrated by the situation, but for different reasons.
Frederick Hess, director of educational policy research at the American Enterprise Institute, is a right-leaning think tank that over the past year, Colombia’s handling of anti-Semitism on campus was a “serious” approach to the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prevented discrimination based on national or nationality. But at the same time, he said the unclear process of the Trump administration’s determination of remedies is problematic.
“I found that some of the things on the list are easy to make sense on the face. Others need a higher standard of reason,” he said. “However, since they are not transparent and…no source of back and forth, there is no proper evidence of misconduct, which is necessary to convince me to demand these specific remedies.”
Benjamin Ginsberg, a professor at Johns Hopkins University who studies American politics and Jewish history, sees this situation as one of the “competitive truths.”
“The Colombian government has long needed to take action against anti-Semitic demonstrators and saboteurs,” Ginsburg said. But at the same time, “the Trump administration has surpassed by the terrible consequences of threatening Colombia.”
He noted that this situation provides opportunities for Colombian administrators.
“certainly, [Trump] The government has surpassed it. It threatens to fire and drop nuclear bombs. “Ginsburg said. “But as I said, the threat gives the Colombian government a chance to do what needs to be done and may want to do it for a while. ”
He added that although he certainly hesitated when the government tries to decide which departments are effective in this case, in which case the responsibility of higher education to students fails. He also believes that as long as Colombia takes disciplinary measures against students who undermine academic life and threaten the safety of others, the Trump administration will be satisfied.
“As long as the federal government tells universities how to organize their admissions processes, or (if any) certainly valid and legal, I’m mine,” Ginsburg said. “But my guess is that these specific requirements don’t produce anything. I mean, I hope the universities don’t get stuck.”
On the other hand, Eddy Conroy, senior education policy manager for New America, a left-leaning think tank, said all recent actions by the Trump administration should be “disturbing.”
Conroy said Colombia has shown a positive response to student protests and should be protected by the First Amendment, which is not only the federal government to determine whether these disciplines are sufficient.
“In the United States, we have an important history of peaceful protests, and sit-in is part of it. Colombia can choose whether to want to handle these things through its own disciplinary process or by pursuing allegations of intrusion,” he said. But for Trump, it’s “a test case showing how far we can push in suppressing speeches.”
Conroy believes the president is trying to spark the example of Columbia in hops with other institutions without fighting, and the university’s response as a test dummy does not help.
“this [Trump] The government hit Columbia and Columbia Cowers and said: “Please hit us harder.”
For Howard, the Colombian AAUP representative, Trump’s actions are a threat to the gem of higher education in the United States.
We have become the greatest university system in the world. But this requires independence. It requires freedom to express different opinions,” she said. Trump’s demands “are so undemocratic that they violate the norms and conventions of college life that complying with them will destroy the heart of the institution. ”
Ryan Quinn contributed to the report.
