Columbia University has agreed to a series of changes demanded by the Trump Administration as a precondition for restoring $400 million in federal funding the government pulled this month over the school’s handling of antisemitism on campus amid pro-Palestinian protests against Israel.
The university released a memo outlining its agreement with US President Donald Trump’s administration hours before an extended deadline set by the government was to expire.
Columbia acquiesced to most of the administration’s demands, including restricting face masks on campus, empowering security officers to remove or arrest individuals, and taking control of the department that offers courses on the Middle East from its faculty.
The Ivy League university’s response is being watched by other universities that the administration has sanctioned as it advances its policy objectives in areas ranging from campus protests to transgender sports and diversity initiatives.
The administration has warned at least 60 other universities of possible action over alleged failure to comply with federal civil rights laws related to antisemitism, which has spiked since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, terror onslaught in Israel and subsequent war in Gaza.
The White House had yet to respond to Columbia’s memo as of Friday evening, and the status of the $400 million in frozen funds remained unclear.
An anti-Israel activist breaks the windows of the front door of Hamilton Hall at Columbia University in order to secure a chain around it to prevent authorities from entering on April 30, 2024 in New York City. (Alex Kent/Getty Images/AFP)
Among the most contentious of the nine demands, Columbia agreed to place its Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies department under a new official, the memo said, taking control away from its faculty.
The university will appoint a new senior administrator to review curriculum and faculty to make sure they are balanced, to and provide fresh leadership at the department, which offers courses on Middle Eastern politics and related subjects.
The demand had raised alarm among professors at Columbia and elsewhere, who worried that permitting the federal government to dictate how a department is run would set a dangerous precedent.
Republican lawmakers in the US House of Representatives last year criticized professors in the department for comments expressing support for Palestinian terror groups and praising the October 7 atrocities, during which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 abducted.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) speaks to the media on the Low Library steps on Columbia University’s campus in New York on April 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)
The school has also hired three dozen special officers who have the power to arrest people on campus and has revised its anti-discrimination policies, including its authority to sanction campus organizations, the memo said.
Face masks to conceal identities are no longer allowed, and any protesters must now identify themselves when asked, the memo said.
The school also said it is searching for new faculty members to “ensure intellectual diversity.” Columbia plans to fill joint positions in the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies and the international affairs school in an effort to ensure “excellence and fairness in Middle East studies,” the memo said.
“The way Columbia and Columbians have been portrayed is hard to reckon with,” Interim President Katrina Armstrong wrote in a letter announcing the changes. “We have challenges, yes, but they do not define us. We are a community of scholars who have deep respect for each other and our mission. We teach the brightest, most creative students in the world, and we care deeply for each and every one of them. I have every faith in our ability to overcome the greatest of challenges. We stand resilient and brilliant.”
Armstrong added, “At all times, we are guided by our values, putting academic freedom, free expression, open inquiry, and respect for all at the fore of every decision we make.”
A sign sits erected at the ‘Gaza Solidarity Encampment’ at Columbia University in New York, April 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah, File)
The sudden shutdown of millions of dollars in federal funding to Columbia University this month was already disrupting medical and scientific research at the school, researchers said.
Critics of the Trump administration’s intervention at Columbia, including thousands of Jewish academics who signed a protest letter this week, say the crackdown there and at other universities reflects an inappropriate incursion on academic freedom and uses fears of antisemitism to justify repression.
The administration’s supporters, who include some pro-Israel students, meanwhile say the moves are necessary to improve the climate for Jewish students at Columbia, which was the first university to see students form a pro-Palestinian encampment in the spring of 2024.
“This is a huge win for Jewish safety at Columbia,” tweeted Eliana Goldin, who is enrolled in Columbia’s joint program with the Jewish Theological Seminary and a leader in the campus Zionist group Aryeh, on Friday. “I’m looking forward to seeing how the university improves these coming weeks.”
It’s not (only) about you.
Supporting The Times of Israel isn’t a transaction for an online service, like subscribing to Netflix. The ToI Community is for people like you who care about a common good: ensuring that balanced, responsible coverage of Israel continues to be available to millions across the world, for free.
Sure, we’ll remove all ads from your page and you’ll unlock access to some excellent Community-only content. But your support gives you something more profound than that: the pride of joining something that really matters.
Join the Times of Israel Community
Join our Community
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this
You’re a dedicated reader
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel – to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you,
David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
Join Our Community
Join Our Community
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’,
‘https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
fbq(‘init’, ‘272776440645465’);
fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);
