Attacking on multiple fronts, cutting off millions of dollars in government grants for research projects, criminalizing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives and protests against Israel’s destruction of Gaza, canceling visas and green cards of students suspected of participating in legal protests, and demanding curriculum, administrative, and disciplinary changes, the Trump administration is threatening the integrity of American universities.
Currently Columbia University in New York City is the main target of Donald Trump’s ire and the MAGA right’s heavy-handed effort to censure ideas that they do not like and criticism of the government’s turn towards authoritarianism. The Trump administration cancelled $400 million in federal grants and contracts for Columbia University primarily used for medical and health research, but over 50 public and private universities are being investigated by the federal Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights for possible violations of its new interpretation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act because they offer undefined “race-conscious programs” or have administrative policies that Trump’s people consider “unlawful.” The Trump Education Department claims that because “U.S. taxpayers invest enormously in U.S. colleges and universities, including Columbia University” it is the “responsibility of the federal government to ensure that all recipients are responsible stewards of federal funds.”
The Columbia University Chapter of American Association of University Professors (AAUP) urged university officials there to reject the Trump administration’s demands including placing an academic department under receivership, abolishing the University Judicial Board, and giving campus security the power to make arrests. arrest authority. The group representing Columbia faculty charged “Compliance would make Columbia complicit in its own destruction” and argued “We see no evidence that compliance would assuage the hostility of the White House.” Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, criticized the Trump administration’s attack on Columbia as an “outrageous” example of “extreme federal overreach” that undermines institutional autonomy, a critical part of American higher education
A letter to the Interim President of Columbia University and its Board of Trustees explained exactly what the Trump administration means by responsible stewardship.
- Abolish the University Judicial Board, centralize all disciplinary processes under the Office of the President, and empower the Office of the President to expedite the process of suspending and expeling students.
- Limit the ability to protest and ban the wearing of masks so that people participating in legal assemblies can be more easily identified and disciplined.
- Recognized student groups should be punished for providing support to anyone who violates University policies, and their members can face suspension or expulsion for actions they did not endorse or participate in.
- The University must grant private Columbia security officers full law enforcement authority including arrest although they are not trained law enforcement officers.
- The Middle East, South Asian, and African Studies departments should be placed under academic receivership for a minimum of five years removing faculty pejoratives on hiring, promotion, and curriculum and effectively granting the Trump administration oversight over what gets taught and how it gets taught at Columbia University.
- Admission policies must be reviewed to ensure that diversity and equity goals are eliminated.
- Columbia University must adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism endorsed by the Trump administration that equates virtually any disagreement with Israeli policy as antisemitic.
In an article by Franklin Foer, a Columbia University alumnus and a staff writer for the magazine The Atlantic, Foer argues there is a history of antisemitism at Columbia. However, when Foer gave a speech at the campus Hillel last spring, “many members, even some who are passionate supporters of Israel, told me that they are happy at Columbia and have never personally experienced anything resembling anti-Semitism.” Foer pointed out that the pro-Palestinian encampments that the Trump administration argues demonstrates the university’s tolerance of antisemitism included Jewish protesters, some of whom were abused by other Jews.
