Columbia Caves to Trump’s Demands on ‘Antisemitism’ to Secure Funding

March 23, 2025 News
US President Donald Trump. (Design: Palestine Chronicle)

By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

Among the concessions agreed to by the university are a ban on face masks at protests and the hiring of 36 “special officers” with the power to remove or arrest students.

Columbia University has yielded to a list of demands by the US government to crack down on “antisemitic violence and harassment” as a precondition to have $400 million in federal funding reinstated.

“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 a document outlining its agreement to the demands, issued hours before an extended deadline set by the government.

Among some of the measures agreed to by the university are a ban on face masks at protests and the hiring of 36 “special officers” with the power to remove or arrest students.

Earlier this month, the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, alongside members of the Joint Task Force to Combat Antisemitism and other government departments, announced the cancelation of $400 million in federal grants and funding to Columbia University “due to the school’s continued inaction to protect Jewish students from discrimination,” according to a press statement from the Department of Education.

This follows the widespread pro-Palestine protests and Gaza Solidarity Encampment led by students at its New York campus over the past year against Israel’s genocidal offensive on the Gaza Strip.

In a letter to the university, dated March 13, the US government departments said Columbia “has fundamentally failed to protect American students and faculty from antisemitic violence and harassment in addition to other alleged violations of Title VI and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.”

Columbia’s document pointed out several actions that it would implement to combat what it defined as “discrimination, harassment and antisemitism” at the university.

Suspension, Expulsion of Students

“Students who violated our rules during Columbia’s first encampment or at Hamilton Hall have been suspended, expelled, or had their degrees temporarily revoked. Disciplinary proceedings against other encampment participants are ongoing,” the document stated.

The university will also change its disciplinary processes, including the University Judicial Board.

“To achieve that goal, the UJB will be situated within and overseen by the Office of the Provost, who reports to the President of Columbia,” the document noted.

‘Free Speech’?

Despite stating that it supports free speech and freedom of expression, the document goes on to say that demonstrations that occur inside academic buildings “present  a direct impediment to maintaining our core academic mission.”

“Based upon the experience of peer schools, Columbia is clarifying that such protests in academic buildings, and other places necessary for the conduct of University activities, are generally not acceptable under the Rules of University Conduct because of the likelihood of disrupting academic activities. All demonstration activity is subject to the University’s anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policies,” it noted.

All individuals who engage in protests or demonstrations, including those who wear face masks or face coverings, “must, when asked, present their University identification to the satisfaction of a University Delegate or Public Safety officer.”

Individuals who fail to comply with these policies “will be subject to discipline, being escorted off campus, and detention for trespass where appropriate.”

‘Special Officers’

The University said it has hired 36 special officers who will have “the ability to remove individuals from campus and/or arrest them when appropriate.”

It “will continue to assess the necessary size of this force to achieve our goals,” noting that the university “has a longstanding relationship” with the New York Police Department (NYPD)

“While we train and credential our internal security force, we will continue to rely on our relationship with the NYPD to provide additional security assistance when needed,” it pointed out.

Middle Eastern Studies

The institution will also appoint a new Senior Vice Provost to “conduct a thorough review of the portfolio of programs in regional areas across the University, starting immediately with the Middle East.

This review will include the Center for Palestine Studies; the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies; Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies; the Middle East Institute; the Tel Aviv and Amman global hubs; the School of International and Public Affairs Middle East Policy major; and other University programs focused on the Middle East (together, the “Middle East Programs”).

New faculty members will be appointed with joint positions in both the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies and the departments of Economics, Political Science, and the School for International and Public Affairs (“SIPA”).

Sixty Institutions Warned

The US administration has sent letters to 60 institutions of higher learning, including Columbia, warning them of “potential enforcement actions if they do not fulfill their obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to protect Jewish students on campus, including uninterrupted access to campus facilities and educational opportunities.”

“The Department is deeply disappointed that Jewish students studying on elite U.S. campuses continue to fear for their safety amid the relentless antisemitic eruptions that have severely disrupted campus life for more than a year. University leaders must do better,” said Secretary of Education Linda McMahon in a statement issued by the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights.

Other universities on the list include Boston University, Harvard, George Mason, Cornell, University of Michigan, and Yale.

Mahmoud Khalil

The action also comes in the wake of the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a recent Columbia graduate, who played a lead role in the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at the university last year.

His detention earlier this month followed US President Donald Trump’s “executive orders prohibiting ant-Semitism,” DHS spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, said in a statement following his arrest. The statement claimed that he had “led activities aligned to Hamas.”

Trump defended Khalil’s arrest, saying it was “the first arrest of many to come.”

“We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it,”  Trump said, vowing to “find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country – never to return again.”

‘Power to Deport’

Last week an Indian postdoctoral fellow based at Georgetown University was also detained.

The court papers, demanding Suri’s immediate release, indicated that he “was put in deportation proceedings under the same rarely used provision of immigration law that the government has invoked to try to deport Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate student and green card holder who led pro-Palestinian protests on campus,” Politico reported.

The provision, according to the news website, gives the Secretary of State “the power to deport noncitizens if the secretary determines that their continued presence in the U.S. would threaten foreign policy.”

(The Palestine Chronicle)

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