Many professors see it as a surrender, a reward for the Trump administration’s heavy hand. Conservative critics of academia celebrated it as an overdue, reset of justice at the Ivy League University.
Columbia University proposed a government-demand lineup in its franchise Friday as it attempts to restore about $400 million in federal funding, widely seen as a watershed in Washington’s relationship with American universities.
According to the design, the consequences will be felt immediately on the Columbia campus, for example, some security personnel will soon have the right to arrest and academic departments that are expected to be under conservative scrutiny will face strict oversight. But they also shape colleges far from Manhattan.
“Columbia is folding and other universities will follow suit,” Christopher Rufo, an activist and senior researcher at the conservative think tank Manhattan Institute, wrote on social media after the university announced Friday.
“They have to restore their pursuit of truth, not ideological activism,” Mr. Rufu said, who was close to the Trump administration and helped fight diversity and equity, becoming a conservative rally cry.
“This is just the beginning,” he added.
The ending is unclear. Colombia’s move on Friday – revealing this in a letter to campus by interim President Dr. Katrina A. Armstrong, essentially an opening bid for negotiations with the federal government, demanding that $400 million flow again. However, the Trump administration has not publicly stated that it may seek other offers from Columbia or dozens of other universities, from Hawaii to Harvard, and it has begun scrutiny since it came to power on January 20.
The Colombia board said in a letter Friday that it has used talks with the government to “present Colombia-driven” plans to change. The board also insists that it is “committed to protect the profound value of Columbia’s fundamental principles of academic excellence, open inquiry and free expression.”
Republicans have spent decades fighting the elite field of higher education. But despite being led by the Pennsylvania-graduated president, the Trump administration has adopted a particularly aggressive and punitive approach.
Vice President JD Vance, who has a degree from Yale Law School, has called the university the “enemy.” Mr. Ruffer recently said his mission is to master federal financial support and make the university feel “existent terror.”
Mr. Ruffer’s comments were published in an interview with The New York Times, the same day the Trump administration attacked Columbia’s checkbook because, the administration said the university did not protect students and faculty “from anti-Semitic violence and harassment.” The government then sent a letter of demand, with leaders of other universities comparing private to ransom notes, especially because it effectively threatens the ongoing funding freeze, regardless of the school’s initial response.
Academics contributed to President Trump’s pressure campaign shortly after his election in November. But, over the past month, Washington’s tactics against Columbia have shaken university leaders from coast to coast.
Many fear that the government’s pursuit of Colombia is a test driver—a way to measure public response, assess the law’s overturning prospects and develop precedents. On Wednesday, the government appeared to bring in another test case, saying it would withhold about $175 million from Pennsylvania as the university allowed an openly transgender woman on its women’s swimming team in 2022.
To address the government’s demands, Colombia is a private university with a long history of campus activism, committed to adopting a formal definition of anti-Semitism, hiring an internal security force that would have the authority to arrest and place the university’s Middle East, South Asia and Africa research sector under the senior deputy deputy deputy deputy deputy deputy church.
The influence of students, faculty and liberal leaders is rapid and severe.
A former Democratic candidate for New York Governor Cynthia Nixon said Columbia abandoned the constitution. Since Senator Joseph R. McCarthy’s crusade against communism in the 1950s, Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of Professors’ Association of University Professors, described the move as the biggest invasion of academic freedom and freedom of speech.
However, it is still unclear whether the university’s acquiescence is sufficient on Saturday.
Leo Terrell, a senior Justice Department attorney and a member of the federal task force, said in a radio interview Thursday that the Trump administration “eliminates anti-Semitism on campus.” Many universities, including Columbia University, saw hatred pro-Palestinian protests in the Gaza War last spring and worked to discuss debates about the implications of anti-Semitism.
“I will tell you now that Columbia does not seem to me – the Justice Department’s opinion – have not cleared their actions yet,” Terrell said. “They are not even close, not even close to these funds.”
A spokesman for the Ministry of Education, one of three federal agencies named by Colombia’s last ATM, did not respond to a request for comment on Saturday, including questions about potential recovery funds.
But the Republican-led House of Education and Workforce Committee were crowded on social media: “Columbia fold.”
The Colombia Board of Trustees did not mention the funding in its letter Friday, saying it had a responsibility to address concerns about “anti-Semitism, discrimination, harassment and prejudice” and was “committed to creating a better environment on campus.”
Even before Colombia responded, widespread rumors spun around campuses across the country as well as among alumni that a school would be targeted by the government.
However, academic leaders have not generally accepted the concept of a deal with the White House.
“Academic freedom is a fundamental principle of universities and must be protected,” Princeton President Christopher L. Eisgruber told PBS Newshour Friday. “So I’m worried about whether universities make concessions to this. I think once you make concessions, it’s hard not to do it anymore.”
Mr Eisgruber, chairman of the American College Association’s board of influential heavyweight schools, said he is not the second time he speculated about Columbia. However, he and others in the academia pointed out that the government has favorably put pressure on major universities with huge research programs.
The government has been the most important supplier of research funds since World War II. Reducing or eliminating this money could weaken many universities. So far, the government has sought to curb a flow of funds that could cost colleges to conduct large-scale scientific research at least $100 million a year.
The university has sued the proposal.
A group of Columbia law professors argued in an article widely circulated over the weekend that the Trump administration violated federal civil rights laws and the constitution.
But one of the authors, David Pozen, tried to look to the future after Colombia refused to engage in a legal battle.
“I think everyone appreciates President Armstrong’s in an impossible position, and I think everyone is frustrated that we have reached that point,” he said in an interview on Saturday.
Others, including some members of the Jewish community, expressed unwelcome people as demonstrations against the war on the university campus of the Gaza seat, and they accepted the university’s decision, or at least understood.
Brent R. Stockwell, director of the Department of Biological Sciences in Columbia, said many people “have no idea that modern research institutions would be impossible without federal funding.” He noted the importance of research to science and its potential for medical breakthroughs and improvements in everyday American lives.
“If the government withdraws completely, there is no scenario in any way in its current form,” he said. “Is the dialogue surrendered? I would say no.”
“It’s frustrating that people from other academic institutions that are not under these pressures say, ‘Colombia should fight good battles.’ They’re happy to give up on our value funding. ”
Liam Stack Contribution report.
