Columbia University is changing its tune on the demands made by the Trump administration, which has already pulled over $400 million of the school’s federal funding over civil rights violations, after Harvard rejected the government’s requests.
In an email published on Columbia’s website, acting university President Claire Shipman said the school would reject any heavy-handed measures to bring the school into line.
“We would reject heavy-handed orchestration from the government that could potentially damage our institution and undermine useful reforms that serve the best interests of our students and community,” Shipman said.
“We would reject any agreement in which the government dictates what we teach, research, or who we hire. And yes, to put minds at ease, though we seek to continue constructive dialogue with the government, we would reject any agreement that would require us to relinquish our independence and autonomy as an educational institution,” she added.
Shipman stood by the school’s decision to acquiesce to several of the Trump administration’s demands on March 21, and said the school believes the Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism is acting in good faith. However, she also stressed that no agreement has been reached, and many points were non-negotiable.
She said, “I stand firmly behind the commitments we outlined on March 21, and all the work that has been done to date. Other ideas, including overly prescriptive requests about our governance, how we conduct our presidential search process, and how specifically to address viewpoint diversity issues are not subject to negotiation.”
Shipman appeared to cite Harvard University as an inspiration, saying she read “with great interest the message from Harvard refusing the federal government’s demands for changes to policies and practices that would strike at the very heart of that university’s venerable mission.”
She also promised support for foreign students “experiencing enormous distress.”
Trump’s antisemitism task force has been engaging with universities to clamp down on antisemitism on campuses, following through on his campaign promise to enforce Title VI civil rights protections to provide Jewish students who have experienced a hostile learning environment an equal educational opportunity.
Antisemitic incidents on campus have skyrocketed since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack, leading to over 100 civil rights investigations.
Under Title VI, schools receiving federal funding cannot discriminate on the basis of race, religion, or country of origin. The Trump administration argues that schools like Columbia and Harvard, which receive billions in federal funds, haven’t done enough to protect Jewish students from antisemitic harassment.
Critics, however, claim the move is meant to suppress pro-Palestinian protests.
On Monday, Harvard became the first school to outright reject the Trump administration, prompting the cancellation of $2.2 billion in multiyear grants. In a letter, the school’s lawyers accused the administration of violating its First Amendment rights.
“The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” the letter said. “Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government. Accordingly, Harvard will not accept the government’s terms as an agreement in principle.”
“Harvard remains open to dialogue about what the university has done, and is planning to do, to improve the experience of every member of its community,” it continued. “But Harvard is not prepared to agree to demands that go beyond the lawful authority of this or any administration.”
The move rallied other top schools, drawing praise from Stanford and Yale.
Stanford President Jonathan Levin and Provost Jenny Martinez issued a statement describing Harvard’s defiance as “rooted in the American tradition of liberty, a tradition essential to our country’s universities, and worth defending.”
Yale’s American Association of University Professors chapter and faculty also praised Harvard’s stance in an open letter, urging other schools to follow suit.
Columbia University has become the face of a bipartisan fight with universities, largely due to conduct associated with its prominent pro-Palestinian movement, including protesters forcefully occupying school buildings and distributing Hamas material on campus.
After taking office, Trump pulled more than $400 million in funding from the university. As a condition for restoring the funds, it demanded sweeping changes to university protest policies, security, and the Middle Eastern studies department.
COLUMBIA AGREES TO TRUMP ADMINISTRATION DEMANDS
Last month, Columbia’s interim president, Katrina Armstrong, announced that the university would implement the changes that were demanded. She resigned shortly after, and Shipman took over.
Among the agreed-upon changes were the hiring of a 36-member internal security force of “special officers” who can arrest or remove people from campus, the banning of face masks with religious or health exceptions, a commitment to institutional neutrality, and the adoption of a definition of antisemitism.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
