Columbia Submits to Trump Administration’s Demands, Pledging To Implement List of Reforms — and Then Some

Columbia University has agreed to implement the reforms that were demanded by the Trump administration last week as a “precondition” for reinstating $400 million in revoked federal grants, according to a memo shared by the school on Friday. “We have worked hard to address the legitimate concerns raised both from within and without our Columbia community, including by our regulators, with respect to the discrimination, harassment, and antisemitic acts our Jewish community has faced in the wake of October 7, 2023,” the university stated in the memo. The nine demands were issued by the Departments of Education and of Health and Human Services in a letter sent to interim University President Katrina Armstrong on March 13. They include the extraordinary concession of putting a far left academic department, Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies — whose tenured professors have been criticized for pervasive antisemitic and racist sentiments — under direct administrative supervision. The reforms include enforcing existing disciplinary policies; abolishing the school’s Judicial Board — which was accused of tolerating antisemitism and harassment of Jewish students — and placing disciplinary processes in the Office of the President; implementing “time, place, and manner rules” to prevent disruptions in the classroom and elsewhere; banning masking of protesters; delivering a plan to hold accountable student groups that violate school rules; adopting a formal definition of antisemitism; empowering internal law enforcement; placing the department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African studies under an “academic receivership” for a minimum of five years; delivering a plan for comprehensive admissions reform in line with federal law.The receivership clause was perhaps the most unusual — and controversial — of the listed demands. According to the memo, Columbia will appoint a vice provost to review the department’s curriculum, nontenure faculty hiring, and leadership “to ensure the educational offerings are comprehensive and balanced.” The school, however, refrained from describing the agreement as a “receivership.” The last time a receivership was invoked at Columbia was in 2002 when the English department was embroiled in a fight that “pitted feminists and multiculturalists against traditionalists,” the Chronicle of Higher Education reported. The university implanted a classics professor as the department’s chair, and after three years, the department “picked up and carried on quite well.” Columbia’s Middle Eastern Studies department has long fielded accusations of antisemitism and anti-Israel bias. Such was documented in the 2004 film “Columbia Unbecoming” which raised the curtain on the mistreatment of Jewish students by mostly Arab and Muslim professors who taught — and continue to teach — in the aforementioned department. One of the embattled professors at the center of the film, Joseph Massad, is still at Columbia — though now as a tenured professor. Mr. Massad recently came under fire for describing the October 7 massacre as “awesome” and “astounding.”In the memo Columbia also pledged to take on several initiatives that were not demanded by the government. Such measures include adopting a policy of institutional neutrality — which means that the school will no longer issue statements on political issues unrelated to the university — and offering a free K-12 curriculum on topics like “how to have difficult conversations and foster open inquiry” and issues “related to antisemitism.” Further, the school will expand “intellectual diversity” among faculty by appointing new faculty members with joint positions in the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies and the departments of Economics, Political Science, and School for International and Public Affairs. “These faculty members will contribute to a robust and intellectually diverse academic environment, reinforcing the University’s commitment to excellence and fairness in Middle East studies,” the university states. The university closed out the memo by announcing that all of the steps “have been underway” and that they are “intended to further Columbia’s basic mission: to provide a safe and thriving environment for research and education, while preserving our commitment to academic freedom and institutional integrity.” The memo puts an end to mounting speculation over how Columbia would respond to the administration’s latest crack-down on campus antisemitism. The Ivy League school was initially bound by a March 20 deadline, but reportedly asked for a two-day extension. The government responded by granting the university until Friday, March 21st to “ensure and document compliance” with the reforms. Ms. Armstrong issued a statement on Wednesday directly referencing the government’s March 13 letter, though her carefully-crafted response tip-toed around whether the school would adhere to any of the listed demands. While Ms. Armstrong shared that many “bristle at the very idea” that Columbia “should ever be subject to such a list,” she balanced the criticism by acknowledging that the “the last two years have both highlighted real cracks in our existing structures and have created new problems that this campus community needs to address.” She further stated that the school would be launching a “webpage” that offers “regular updates” on Columbia’s progress to address antisemitism, harassment, and discrimination on campus. Columbia, which has been the site of some of the most virulent anti-Israel campus protests in the country since October 7, was among the first universities to be targeted by the Trump administration in its crackdown on campus antisemitism. Earlier this month, the government revoked $400 million in federal grants and contracts over Columbia’s “continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.” It is unclear, however, what else the government will require of Columbia before it reinstates the pulled funding. According to the March 13 letter, the nine reforms represent the “immediate next steps that we regard as a precondition for formal negotiations regarding Columbia University’s continued financial relationship with the United States government.” The government is also in the midst of conducting a “comprehensive review” of more than $5 billion in promised grants to the school. Other universities may soon be faced with the same connundrum. This week, the Trump administration pulled $175 million in federal funding from the University of Pennsylvania over its policies regarding transgender athletes.

Columbia Submits to Trump Administration’s Demands, Pledging To Implement List of Reforms — and Then Some

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