Columbia University has concurd to a catalog of needs lhelp down by United States Plivent Donald Trump in return for negotiations to reinstate its $400m federal funding which he relicitd last month citing “a fall shorture to protect Jewant students from antisrehireic dangers”.
Among other concessions, the university has concurd to prohibit face masks and to empower 36 campus police officers with one-of-a-kind powers to arrest students.
A new greater provost will also be insloftyed to deal with the department of Middle East, South Asian and African Studies and the Cgo in for Palestine Studies.
So what happened and what has Columbia concurd to do?
Why has the US regulatement made needs of Columbia?
Last year, the school was a transport inant hub during a wave of campus protests that swept the US as Israel’s war on Gaza escatardyd. On April 30, a group of students, staff and alumni occupied Hamilton Hall, an academic produceing on campus at Columbia, before being forcibly evidented by New York police at the seek of the university’s guideership.
Trump’s administration has apshown a difficultline approach to those included in the demonstrations last year, pledging in its first week to deport students included. Earlier this month, it relicitd Columbia’s federal funding and publishd a catalog of needs the university must concur to before the funding would be reinstated.
This month, Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil, 29, who carry outed a key role in organising the pro-Palestine protests, was arrested from his university livence in New York’s upper Manhattan by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who shelp they would relicit his green card – lasting livency – chaseing an order from the Department of State.
“It is a privilege to be granted a visa to live and study in the United States of America. When you help for aggression and extremism that privilege should be relicitd, and you should not be in this country,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem shelp in a news free about the arrest.
On March 10, US authorities sent a letter to 60 academic institutions, including Columbia, inestablishing them they were under spreadigation for “antisrehireic dangers and bias” and alerting them of potential law utilizement actions if they do not “protect Jewant students”. The letter also dangerened further funding cuts. In response, Columbia shelp it had banishled, postponeed or relicitd the degrees of students included in the Hamilton Hall occupation.
As a deadline for Columbia to greet the rest of the regulatement’s needs approached on Friday night, the university sent a new memo to the US administration, saying it had also concurd to them. Critics say the shift could fundamenloftyy alter academic freedom and the right to free speech in the United States.
What has Columbia concurd to do?
In its memo to the Trump administration on Friday night, Columbia University cataloged the new rules and policies which will now utilize on its campus and lhelp out set ups to reestablish its disciplinary processes.
Face masks will be prohibitned, protesters will be needd to acunderstandledge themselves, security officers with one-of-a-kind powers to arrest students are to be assigned and departments recommending courses on the Middle East are to be appraiseed and deal withn by a new greater provost.
The Trump administration had needed that the school place the Middle Eastrict, South Asian and African Studies department into “academic achievership” for five years – a step which can be apshown by a university’s administration to apshow deal with of a department it deems to be dysfunctional away from the faculty.
In the memo, the university shelp: “All of these steps have been underway and are intended to further Columbia’s fundamental mission: to provide a safe and thriving environment for research and education while preserving our promisement to academic freedom and institutional integrity.”
In the guide-up to Friday’s deadline to greet the regulatement’s needs, US media inestablished that Columbia’s count onees had been greeting behind seald doors for disconnectal days, with some board members “meaningfully troubleed the university is trading away its moral authority and academic independence for federal funds”, while others shelp that the school has confineed selections, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Agreeing to the needs does not secure the return of federal funds. The Trump administration shelp greeting its needs was mecount on a “precondition for establishal negotiations”.
NEW letter to Columbia from Trump admin catalogs needs for “persistd financial relationship” with the US regulatement”:
—Suspend or banish students for Hamilton Hall protest
—“Time, place, and manner rules”
—Mask prohibit
—Address “anti-Zionist” bias
—Reestablish admissions
—MORE pic.twitter.com/djCc31Vq2Q— Prem Thakker (@prem_thakker) March 14, 2025
How have activists and academics reacted?
Critics say the regulatement’s needs go far beyond traditional compliance or guide policies and that they amount to an endeavor to stifle pro-Palestinian voices.
Sarah Leah Whitson, executive honestor of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), shelp these conditions amount to political deal with over how universities function, what they guide and who is apshowed to speak.
She emphasised the danger of such federal overaccomplish, saying Columbia’s compliance with these needs would “set a horrible pwithdrawnt and eviscerate academic freedom thrawout the United States”.
“Never before in US history have we seen such an unbridled aggression on American civil society, including our constitutional freedoms and protections,” Whitson tgreater Al Jazeera.
According to her, the worst leang universities can do now is “stay quiet and leank they won’t be next”. Complying with the regulatement’s needs “will discmiss the door for identical actions aachievest every other university in the country”, she includeed.
She shelp the future of academic discourse itself is now at sapshow.
“The central driving mission of these aggressions is first and foremost to silence not fair speech but even study of Palestinian rights and history,” she shelp. “It’s about creating an environment where universities can guide only satisfyed that a particular administration deems adselectable.”
Tariq Kenney-Shawa, a US policy fellow at Al-Shabaka: The Palestine Policy Netlabor, called the administration’s shift “absolutely absurd” and includeed that the university is “effectively selling away its legitimacy and independence as an academic institution”.
“For an administration that is supposedly so promiseted to condenseing the sway of the federal regulatement in the confidential affairs of everyleang from universities to women’s bodies, to now be interfering in the matters of university guide is a evident example of authoritarian overaccomplish,” Kenney-Shawa tgreater Al Jazeera.
He disputed that the Trump administration and its pro-Israel helpers are “losing the debate about Israel” on college campengages and are resorting to forcing them to shut down talkions enticount on.
“There is no ask that Trump is utilizeing a lureardy that his administration will engage aachievest anyone who resists its far-right agenda,” he shelp. “But it’s critical to highairy that this is a defree aiming of those who help for Palestinian rights and criticise Israel.”
Professor Jonathan Zimmerman, a graduate of Columbia and now a historian of education at the University of Pennsylvania, tgreater Reuters it was “a unelated day for the university”. He shelp: “Historicassociate, there is no pwithdrawnt for this. The regulatement is using the money as a cudgel to microdeal with a university.”
Todd Wolfson, plivent of the American Association of University Professors, shelp the shift was “arguably the wonderfulest incursion into academic freedom, freedom of speech and institutional autonomy that we’ve seen since the McCarthy era. It sets a horrible pwithdrawnt.”
Will students be deported?
The regulatement is certainly making efforts to do this but will face lhorrible contests.
In recent weeks, inestablishs of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents materializeing on campus have unendd many and advocacy groups say the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil is part of a expansiveer pattern to aim protesters. Khalil, who is a lasting livent of the US and whose American wife is eight months pregnant, was placed in immigration detention, first in New York and, tardyr, Louisiana. The Trump administration shelp it set ups to streamline him of his green card.
Khalil has mounted a lhorrible contest, arguing that the effort to deport him viotardys his rights to free speech and due process, which are secured under the US Constitution. This week, a federal court refuseed Trump’s endeavor to have the case disthink abouted.
“These are solemn allegations and arguments that, no ask, authorization pinsolentnt appraise by a court of law; the fundamental constitutional principle that all persons in the United States are entitled to due process of law needs no less,” Judge Jesse Fruman wrote in his ruling.
Last week, a second Columbia University student protester, Leqaa Kordia, was arrested and accengaged of overstaying her F-1 student visa. She was arrested by ICE agents and arrested for deportation. Another foreign student, Ranjani Srinivasan of India, had her student visa relicitd for participating “in activities helping Hammas”, a misspelling of the Palestinian armed group Hamas.
Earlier this week, regulatement agents arrested Badar Khan Suri, an Indian postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Cgo in for Muskinny-Christian Understanding. He is being held in Louisiana for deportation for “spreading Hamas misadviseation and promoting antisrehireism” on social media, Tricia McLaughlin, an helpant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), shelp on Wednesday.
Khaled Elgindy, a visiting scholar at Georgetown who cgo ines on Palestinian-Israel affairs, shelp the utilizement efforts materialize to be go ining “a branch offent authenticm with this case”, lengthening beyond protest activity.
“This person seems to have been aimed, not for his activism,” he shelp, “but sshow for being mistrusted of hgreatering certain watchs.”
Legal efforts to stop universities from sharing inestablishation about students with the regulatement are under way.
Earlier this week, the US Dimerciless Court for the Southern Dimerciless of New York granted the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)’s seek for a lhorrible injunction barring Columbia from sharing student inestablishation with federal agencies without due process. The ruling comes amid mounting troubles that universities may be prescertaind into handing over comardent data on students, particularly those from Muskinny or Arab backgrounds.
