Now that the Trump administration has pulled $400 million in federal funding from Columbia University over the ongoing issue of antisemitism on their campus, Trump officials have sent the school a letter outlining a list of demands that must be met before the federal government will even consider restoring the funds.
This is glorious. It’s wonderful to see the government, the representatives of the people, making demands on a university rather than a campus mob for a change.
The New York Times has details:
Trump Demands Major Changes in Columbia Discipline and Admissions RulesThe Trump administration on Thursday demanded that Columbia University make dramatic changes in student discipline and admissions before it would discuss lifting the cancellation of $400 million in government grants and contracts.It said the ultimatum was necessary because of what it described as Columbia’s failure to protect Jewish students from harassment.The government called for the university to formalize its definition of antisemitism, to ban the wearing of masks “intended to conceal identity or intimidate” and to place the school’s Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies Department under “academic receivership.”“We expect your immediate compliance,” officials from the General Services Administration, Department of Education and Department of Health and Human Services said in a letter.They said that since the Trump administration had announced it was cutting the funding, “your counsel has asked to discuss ‘next steps.’” The administration demanded a response to its letter within a week as “a precondition for formal negotiations regarding Columbia University’s continued financial relationship with the United States government.”The Trump administration’s move to cut Columbia’s grants and contracts represented an extraordinary escalation of the government’s targeting of the university.Columbia, it said, “has fundamentally failed to protect American students and faculty from antisemitic violence and harassment.”
Columbia is already taking some action on their own. They just expelled some of the students involved the takeover of a campus building last year.
The Associated Press reported:
Columbia University says it expelled some students who seized building last yearColumbia University has expelled or suspended some students who took over a campus building during pro-Palestinian protests last spring and temporarily revoked the diplomas of others who have since graduated, officials said Thursday.The university said in a campus-wide email that a judicial board brought a range of sanctions against students who occupied Hamilton Hall last spring to protest the war in Gaza.Columbia did not provide a breakdown of how many students were expelled, were suspended or had their degrees revoked, but it said the outcomes were based on an “evaluation of the severity of behaviors.”The culmination of the monthslong investigative process comes as the university is reeling from the arrest of a well-known Palestinian campus activist, Mahmoud Khalil, by federal immigration authorities last Saturday. President Donald Trump has said the arrest would be the “first of many” such detentions.
Mahmoud Khalil was directly involved in the takeover of that building, an action that included holding university staffers in the building against their will and issuing demands to the school. That alone should justify the government’s plan to deport him.
Columbia could have avoided all of this, but they chose to allow this radical mob to take control of their campus. Now they’re finding out.
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