Columbia University is reportedly considering falling into President Trump's demands, including a mask ban and a massive crackdown on anti-Israel protests on campus.
Arguing that Ivy League schools failed to comply with the anti-discrimination law, the Trump administration announced earlier this month plans to curb grants and contracts, representing roughly 8% of U.S. tax funds.
Quoting an unnamed university official, The Wall Street Journal explained The growing division amongst the school's councils is in favour of succumbing to demands, and some have expressed concern that Colombia means that it “means moral authority and academic independence for the federal fund.”
in March 19th letterInterim CU President Katrina Armstrong admitted that the past two years have “emphasized the true cracks in existing structures,” vowing that the schools will “never compromise on the value of educational independence, academic freedom, or the obligation to follow the law.”
She highlighted the efforts the university has taken in recent weeks — including the announcement of new policies against Doxxing and online harassment — but has stopped offering conclusive statements about how schools will ultimately respond to administration directions.
A Columbia spokesperson declined to comment on issues that go beyond Armstrong's letter.
The administration has imposed nine specific requirements as “prerequisites for formal negotiations” regarding elite schools' “continued fiscal relations with the US government.” March 13th letter.
Among them, Colombia is instructed to “enforce existing disciplinary policies.” That is, it punishes the person responsible for the violent acquisition of Hamilton Hall in April 2024.
A few months after the protest, former Colombian president Minush Shafiq suddenly resigns, denounces “an era of chaos” due to her shocking departure.
“Meaningful discipline means expulsion or multi-year suspension,” demand specifies. The university announced last week that it had ousted and suspended an unspecified number of students involved in the incident, but it was not clear whether that was a direct result of Trump's order.
The government also calls for schools to abolish the university's Judiciary Committee and instead centralizes all disciplinary processes under the university president. He directs that the appeal process is given authority to suspend or expel students.
The list of requests also includes requirements to prohibit masks with sculptures for religious and health reasons, but specifying masked individuals requires the identification of the CU to be displayed outside of the clothing.
Columbia is under pressure to enact a mask ban, with the support of a group of Jewish alumni and elected officials such as Bronx MP Richie Torres and New York Mayor Eric Adams, but schools have not been caught up in the issue so far.
Columbia must also agree to exclude, where necessary, accountable groups of students who are violating university policies through formal investigations, disciplinary procedures and expulsion, the order said.
Earlier this month, Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested Colombian protest leader Mahmoud Khalil in his university-owned apartment. He has since been taken to an ice facility in Louisiana, and the Trump administration plans to deport him to lead “activities along Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.”
Khalil and his lawyers have challenged his arrest and detention illegally, and a court battle is underway to determine whether the regime holds legal status to kick Syrian-born Palestinians who held green cards abroad.
One of the most drastic demands is that the school's research departments in the Middle East, South Asia and Africa will be placed under “academic reception” for at least five years, giving the authority to make faculty decisions to someone outside the department.
The journal writes that in rare cases where university faculties are placed under a receiving vessel, the school is usually in the hands of the dean of another department.
“Immediate compliance with these important next steps is expected, and we hope to open up conversations about immediate and long-term structural reforms that will return Colombia to its original mission of innovative research and academic excellence,” the letter concludes.
Columbia is not the only school in the Trump administration's crosshairs.
On March 10, the Department of Education's civil rights department warned that their federal fund could be next in the chopping block over anti-Semitic discrimination and harassment on campus.
