The Trump administration had pulled $400 million in federal grants to the college over its alleged failure to handle anti-Semitism.
Columbia College Interim President Katrina Armstrong introduced on March 21 that the college has agreed to implement a raft of coverage adjustments in response to the Division of Training’s necessities for combatting campus anti-Semitism with a view to obtain federal funding.
The adjustments embody a scholar masks ban—until for well being or non secular causes, a revised admissions and recruitment course of, and strict administrative oversight from a brand new senior vice provost who will monitor sure tutorial majors that, previously, had offered anti-Semitic instruction.
The college may also conduct a direct evaluation of its Center Japanese research division.
Moreover, Armstrong introduced that the campus judicial board for disciplining college students will likely be made up of directors and school members to any extent further. Additionally, the campus public security employees is being elevated to higher deal with disruptive conditions, and the “mental range” within the school will likely be expanded, in accordance with Armstrong.
The Trump administration lately canceled $400 million in grants to Columbia, which was on monitor to get $5 billion in federal help for the 2024-2025 tutorial yr, following an investigation into alleged anti-Semitic disruptions and campus vandalism amid pro-Palestinian protests main as much as the resignation of former college President Nemat “Minouche” Shafik.
The Epoch Occasions has reached out to the White Home and Division of Training for additional remark.
In the meantime, a federal courtroom on March 20 issued a short lived order blocking Columbia from releasing scholar disciplinary information to the Home Training Committee and the Workforce, which is trying into allegations associated to anti-Semitism on the faculty.
U.S. Southern District Courtroom Choose Arun Subramanian’s ruling set a March 25 listening to to find out additional actions in a lawsuit filed by Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian graduate scholar at Columbia and U.S. inexperienced card holder who was arrested by Immigration Customs Enforcement after main protests final yr towards Israel’s army response to the Hamas terrorist assault on Oct. 7, 2023. Khalil, the lead plaintiff within the case, is now going through deportation.
“As of proper now, Columbia is prohibited from sharing any data with the federal authorities,” Nasher advised The Epoch Occasions on March 21, earlier than Armstrong’s announcement.
March 19 courtroom papers filed by Khalil accuse the federal authorities of leveraging tons of of tens of millions of {dollars} in federal help to pressure Columbia College to “undertake an Israel-specific speech code that may punish college students for criticizing Israel within the widespread and typical methods folks criticize overseas nations.”
Subramanian didn’t grant the plaintiff’s request to revive the college’s federal funding.
Nasher stated the lawsuit goals to protect First Modification rights and tutorial freedom at Columbia.
“This was an unprecedented assault on freedom of speech,” he stated. “Finally, the aim is to guard the scholars.”
Correction: A earlier model of this text’s deck misstated the quantity of funding to Columbia canceled by the federal authorities. The Epoch Occasions regrets the error.