Columbia University is under intense pressure from the Trump administration, which has issued a series of radical demands in exchange for federal funding. These include overhauling its disciplinary processes, expelling some students, reforming admissions, and granting campus security full law enforcement authority. The university is navigating this situation while facing backlash from faculty and students, who are concerned about preserving academic freedom and governance. Experts have characterized the administration's demands as an unprecedented assault on higher education principles. Columbia has until March 20 to respond to these demands.
The demands escalate an already precarious situation for Columbia as it simultaneously faces pressure from the White House to comply and pressure from students and faculty to fight back.
'We are in a state of shock and disbelief... to resist all Trump efforts to take academic decisions out of the hands of academics,' said Jean Howard, an executive committee member.
'After which we hope to open a conversation about immediate and long-term structural reforms that will return Columbia to its original mission of innovative research and academic excellence,' Trump officials stated.
Several free speech and higher ed policy experts say the letter amounts to an unprecedented assault on higher education that could threaten foundational principles.
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