Columbia University makes policy changes when threatened by Trump administration
At the threat of the Trump administration, Columbia University agreed to implement many policy changes on Friday, including overhauling its protest rules and immediately reviewing the Middle East Research Department.
The changes were detailed in a letter sent by New York City interim principal Katrina Armstrong, a week after the Trump administration ordered Ivy League schools to carry out these and other reforms or lose all federal funding, a last-divide aatimation widely criticized in academia as an attack on academic freedom.
Armstrong said in the letter that the university will immediately appoint a senior vice provost to conduct a thorough review of its regional research program’s portfolio “start immediately from the Middle East.”
Colombia will also revise its long-standing disciplinary process and bar protests in academic buildings. Students are not allowed to wear masks on campus “to conceal their identity.” An exception will be made to those who wear them for health reasons.
To expand “intellectual diversity” within the university, Colombia will also appoint new faculty and staff to the Israeli and Jewish studies department. It will also adopt a new definition of anti-Semitism and extend programming at its Tel Aviv Center, located in its Israeli-based research center.
The policy changes are largely in line with the Trump administration’s demands for universities, which attracted $400 million in research grants and other federal funds and threatened to cut universities’ handling of Israel’s military movement in Gaza.
Ranjani Srinivasan, a PhD student at Columbia University, called her a “terrorist sympathizer” ridiculous allegations, told CBC’s David Common that she was worried about her safety after U.S. immigration and customs law enforcement officers showed up at her doorstep.
The White House marked the protests as Antismitic, which was rejected by those attending student-led demonstrations.
News of seeking comments was left to a spokesperson for the education department.
As a “prerequisite” for restoration funding, federal officials asked the university to put its eastern, southern Asia and African research sectors under “academic takeover for at least five years.”
They also told universities to ban masks on campus, adopt a new anti-Semitism definition, abolish current disciplinary procedures, and provide a program to “reform undergraduate admissions, international recruitment and graduate admissions practices.”
Historians describe the order as an unprecedented invasion of the U.S. Supreme Court’s long-standing university rights, an extension of the First Amendment.
On Friday, advocates of free speech immediately condemned Colombia’s default decision.
“It’s a sad day for Columbia and our democracy,” said Jameel Jaffer, director of the First Amendment School of the Knights at Columbia University in a social media post.”
