How Columbia gave in to Trump’s demands to get its $400m funding back

How Columbia gave in to Trump’s demands to get its $400m funding back

In exchange for negotiations to reinstate its $ 400 million federal funding, which he revoked last month citing “a failure to protect Jewish students from antisemitic harassment,” Columbia University agreed to a list of demands that were made by US President Donald Trump.

Among other concessions, the university has agreed to ban face masks and to empower 36 campus police officers with special powers to arrest students.

The Center for Palestine Studies, Middle East, South Asian, and African Studies, and the Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies will both be under the leadership of a new senior provost.

What has Columbia agreed to do, then?

Why has the US government made demands of Columbia?

The school was a major hub last year as a result of the US’s growing wave of campus protests as Israel’s occupation of Gaza grew. A group of students, staff, and alumni occupied Hamilton Hall, a Columbia academic building, on April 30 before being forcibly cleared by New York police at the university’s leadership’s request.

Trump’s administration has taken a hardline approach to those involved in the demonstrations last year, pledging in its first week to deport students involved. It lifted Columbia’s federal funding earlier this month, and it also published a list of obligations that the university must meet.

Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia student who was key in the pro-Palestine demonstrations, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from his university residence in upper Manhattan this month after the Department of State issued an order to revoke his green card, which is permanent residency.

“It is a privilege to be granted a visa to live and study in the United States of America. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stated in a news release about the arrest that the privilege to advocate for violence and terrorism should be revoked and that you should not be residing in this country.

In a letter to 60 academic institutions, including Columbia, US authorities informed them on March 10 that they were being investigated for “antisemitic harassment and discrimination” and that they could face possible law enforcement actions if they do not “protect Jewish students.” The letter also threatened further funding cuts. Columbia responded by expulsioning, suspending, or revokeing the degrees of students who had taken part in the Hamilton Hall occupation.

Columbia received a new memo from the US administration claiming it had also agreed to them as the government’s deadline approached Friday night. Critics say the move could fundamentally alter academic freedom and the right to free speech in the United States.

What has Columbia consented to?

Columbia University listed the new regulations and policies that will now be in effect on its campus in its memo to the Trump administration on Friday night, as well as detailed plans to overhaul its disciplinary procedures.

Face masks will be banned, protesters will be required to identify themselves, security officers with special powers to arrest students are to be appointed and departments offering courses on the Middle East are to be reviewed and overseen by a new senior provost.

The administration of Trump had demanded that the university’s administration appoint a five-year “academic receivership” for the Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies department. This could allow the university to appoint someone to take over a dysfunctional department away from the faculty.

The university stated in the memo that “all of these steps have been taken and are intended to advance Columbia’s fundamental mission, which is to preserve our commitment to academic freedom and institutional integrity.”

In the lead-up to Friday’s deadline to meet the government’s demands, US media reported that Columbia’s trustees had been meeting behind closed doors for several days, with some board members “deeply concerned the university is trading away its moral authority and academic independence for federal funds”, while others said that the school has limited options, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The return of federal funds cannot be guaranteed by agreeing to the demands. According to the Trump administration, obtaining its demands was merely a “condition for formal negotiations.”

How have activists and academics responded?

The government’s demands, according to critics, go beyond traditional conduct or compliance requirements and represent an attempt to silence pro-Palestinian voices.

These constraints, according to Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), give the organization the power to regulate how universities operate, what they teach, and who is permitted to speak.

She emphasised the danger of such federal overreach, saying Columbia’s compliance with these demands would” set a terrible precedent and eviscerate academic freedom throughout the United States”.

Never before has there been such a blatant assault on American civil society, including our constitutional rights and protections, said Wattson, according to Wattson.

The worst thing universities can do right now, in her opinion, is “stay quiet and think they won’t be next.” Complying with the government’s demands” will open the door for identical actions against every other university in the country”, she added.

She claimed that there is a risk to the development of academic discourse.

She said, “The main objective of these assaults is in particular to silence not just speech but also the study of Palestinian rights and history.” It’s about creating an environment where universities can teach only content that a particular administration deems acceptable. “

The Palestine Policy Network, a US policy fellow at Al-Shabaka, described the administration’s action as “absolutely absurd” and claimed that the university is effectively “selling away its legitimacy and independence as an academic institution.”

“To now be interfering in the matters of university conduct is a clear example of authoritarian overreach,” Penney-Shawa told Al Jazeera, “for an administration that is supposedly so dedicated to shrinking the influence of the federal government in the private affairs of everything from universities to women’s bodies.”

He argued that the Trump administration and its pro-Israel supporters are” losing the debate about Israel “on college campuses and are resorting to forcing them to shut down discussions entirely.

There is no denying that Trump is using a template to attack anyone who supports its far-right agenda, he said. However, it is crucial to point out that this is purposefully targeting those who support and criticize Israel.

Professor Jonathan Zimmerman, a graduate of Columbia and now a historian of education at the University of Pennsylvania, told Reuters it was” a sad day for the university”. There has never been a precedent for this, he said. The government is using the funds to “micromanage” a university.

Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of University Professors, said the move was” arguably the greatest incursion into academic freedom, freedom of speech and institutional autonomy that we’ve seen since the McCarthy era. It creates a terrible precedent.

Can students be deported?

The government is certainly making efforts to do this but will face legal challenges.

Many people have been disturbed by reports of immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) agents showing up on campus in recent weeks, and advocacy groups claim Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest is a part of a wider pattern of alleged protesters’ behavior. Khalil, a permanent resident of the US, was detained for eight months while her American wife was awaiting her arrival in Louisiana. The Trump administration said it plans to strip him of his green card.

Khalil has filed a lawsuit against the US Constitution’s guaranteeing his freedom of speech and due process. Trump’s request to have the case dismissed was turned down by a federal court this week.

” These are serious allegations and arguments that, no doubt, warrant careful review by a court of law, the fundamental constitutional principle that all persons in the United States are entitled to due process of law demands no less, “Judge Jesse Fruman wrote in his ruling.

Leqaa Kordia, a second Columbia University student protester, was detained last week and charged with overstaying her F-1 student visa. She was held for deportation and taken into custody by ICE agents. Another foreign student, Ranjani Srinivasan of India, had her student visa revoked for participating” in activities supporting Hammas”, a misspelling of the Palestinian armed group Hamas.

Badar Khan Suri, an Indian postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, was taken into custody earlier this week by government agents. Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), reported on Wednesday that he is being held in Louisiana for deportation for ” spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism.”

Khaled Elgindy, a visiting scholar at Georgetown who focuses on Palestinian-Israel affairs, said the enforcement efforts appear to be entering” a different realm with this case”, extending beyond&nbsp, protest activity.

He said, “This person appears to have been targeted, not for his activism,” but simply because he believes he has a bias against certain people.

University legal efforts are underway to stop the government from obtaining student data.

Source: Aljazeera

234Radio

234Radio is Africa's Premium Internet Radio that seeks to export Africa to the rest of the world.