Other Ivy League universities should make immediate offers to all Columbia Graduate students and untenured faculty. Other state and private colleges in the region should offer expedited transfer to all Columbia undergraduates. The AAUP should enter the fray and whatever challenges can be made to accreditation should be immediately begun. Such actions will pose some hardships upon other institutions, but they can be met if boards and donors support them. To allow Columbia to operate in business as usual fashion is to cling to a gangrenous limb after the spread of infection is evident. If the rest of the Ivy League is silent, then American higher education may never recover.
Universities have always been the bedrock of freedom of expression. The light of democracy is being snuffed out. We need to return to the days of massive protests. Make Trump and his goons show their authoritative cards to the public.
Columbia has an endowment of $14 billion. Seems like they may have been able to weather the storm longer than two weeks. The complete capitulation is embarrassing.
It's shameful, on so many levels, but you know what's even more distressing, at least to me, a former Columbia student ? That this surrender, this cowardly abdication in the name of money, stokes Trump's ego, this inflates him, like Ursula rising out of the sea, bloated and deranged. If only to prevent him from even greater madness, drunkenness with power, Columbia should not have caved. It twists my solar plexus into knots.
Why not take less money for research, for integrity's sake, and keep that research pure and honest, because it's clear that the money Columbia has prostrated itself to get is going to come with so many conditions, so many prohibitions on the direction it can go in and the results it's allowed to reach and publish, that it's not going to be reliable at all. This once-respected university's reputation is now absolutely tarnished.
As a Columbia University alumna, I am saddened to read the disasters that have befallen Columbia and the decision that the Administration at the school has made to capitulate to a dictator. While losing $400 million in Federal funds is not a picnic, Columbia admin might have figured out a way to go on without it and maintained their independence. I'm afraid now that Columbia is tainted, as Sarat states, and it will affect Columbia for the foreseeable future in terms of recruiting new students and faculty. A once-great university has been brought to its knees by a bunch of thugs in a corrupt power play.
Just yesterday I wrote to Columbia physicist Brian Greene urging him to cancel his upcoming appearance at The Kennedy Center, suggesting he consult with colleagues at his university. Unfortunately, obeying in advance seems to be the ongoing theme in US higher education.
$400m is a lot, but cheap to give the old Three Fingered Salute to the felonious traitors in this administration. It would prove that academia can stand tall, giving props to all the other universities to tell them to f*** off, that their policies are sacrosanct and not for debate. Call their damned bluff! Take them to court with any number of constitutional arguments. Sorry Columbia gave in. 😞
Or just do less research but make it research with integrity. Any research done with this dirty money will be restricted in what it can look into and what results it's allowed to publish.
Excellent piece, Austin Sarat. I would quibble only with one point. You wrote: "When powerful institutions like Columbia give in to threats and pressure tactics, others get the message". Through its extremely poor performance first when attacked by the MAGA wing in Congress and now when attacked by Trump, Columbia has shown the world that it is not in fact a powerful institution. It is a weak supplicant, wafting in the cross winds of its own internal storms, unwilling to take principled positions. Columbia ultimately has shown the world that it is willing to compromise the values of a free and democratic academic community to try to preserve its financial position. Weak.
We are living under the thumb of an administration of depravity. Every day is a trip to the locked ward. There is no depth to which they will not go for personal power. Power corrupts / Absolute power corrupts absolutely. —Lord Acton, 19th-century English historian.
You've lost far more than you can ever hope to gain. This is a sad and faint reminder of the shuttle with which you share the name. Their calculated risk led to a stronger spacecraft. I doubt that your calculation will similarly benefit higher education.
Shades of Germany 1936, Third Reich style. This doesn’t bode well for democracy, education, or the United Stares of America. Hitler-style thuggery is prevalent in this Trump Regime. Are the camps being built?
I live in New York City. I am a Jew. I watched the "protests" unfolding. I watched buildings being vandalized. I watched Jewish businesses being tagged and vandalized. I saw Jewish students in fear on campus and throughout the city. My elementary school grandson witnessed a hate filled tirade on the street of Manhattan. I watched classes being disrupted by face covered walk-ins who proceeded to chant their demands and plastered their posters around the room. No one came in to remove the disrupters. It took days or weeks to call law enforcement to clear the vandalized buildings. Columbia had years to do the right thing by seriously protecting their students, staff, neighborhood businesses and buildings. It did nothing useful. While I abhor trump and his acolytes, I am glad Columbia is doing what it says it will do and what it should have done. The only item that should not have been demanded is the curriculum ultimatums. That's a school's prerogative. Columbia could have done all the things and not forfeited the $400 million. It could also have done all the things and said to the White House "Keep the money."
I like your comment because it is thoughtful and made me think. I reread the article. I reflected on another article in my local Chicago paper about how the Trump regime is investigating blue cities for antisemitism. My sister and nephew are Jewish as are several other family members. I am not sympathetic to what I perceive as the overly aggressive tactics of Palestinian protesters. I recoil at the seemingly-determined lack of understanding of Jewish history and Jewish leaders' contributions to civil rights expressed by many Palestinian supporters. But I don't believe the Trump regime is protecting Jews. I believe it is dividing and conquering, and the politics around the Hamas-Israeli war provides fertile ground to do this, so it is taking full advantage. The Trump regime represents White Christian Nationalism. Jewish people are not Christians and many are not white. What will be their standing once the White Christian Nationalists successfully divide and conquer? Arabs for Trump changed its name to Arabs for Peace when Trump came out with his horrific proposal to turn Gaza into a resort. Many Arabs backed him until that point. You do not believe in Trump, but your observations/experiences have led you to accept that it is okay for his administration to strongarm Columbia University. Those tactics (or others like them) can, indeed will, be used against Jews. To the extent that many Jewish people are intellectual leaders in our universities, the strongarming has already begun. I can be too accepting and not question ulterior motives. Perhaps this reflects an assumption that as a WASP, I will be safe. My loving stepmother, if she were alive today, would be exceedingly alarmed as a Jewish person by what is happening. She did question ulterior motives. I hear her voice as I write this, and I answer, yes, I will be exceedingly alarmed on her behalf. In her memory, I urge people to question their acceptance of the tactics of a corrupt (and fascist) administration because the outcome in a particular instance seems, to them, reasonably just.
Columbia University's endowment is in excess of $14 billion dollars, but it is willing to knuckle under to the threat of losing $400 million. A university's endowment is supposed to ensure its longevity and service to its community and to scholarship and learning. We are in a crisis that may lead to the destruction of this country and yet the university's leadership and board clutch at funding that $400 million from its own deep resources. Shame!
Whoa! $14 BILLION?! So it's not about the money after all. Columbia is just using that as an excuse to deal with some pesky problem faculty and students. Thanks for clearing that up for us, Susan.
Other Ivy League universities should make immediate offers to all Columbia Graduate students and untenured faculty. Other state and private colleges in the region should offer expedited transfer to all Columbia undergraduates. The AAUP should enter the fray and whatever challenges can be made to accreditation should be immediately begun. Such actions will pose some hardships upon other institutions, but they can be met if boards and donors support them. To allow Columbia to operate in business as usual fashion is to cling to a gangrenous limb after the spread of infection is evident. If the rest of the Ivy League is silent, then American higher education may never recover.
Yes! Yes, yes, yes!
Have you by any chance been following the Harvard Follies?
Universities have always been the bedrock of freedom of expression. The light of democracy is being snuffed out. We need to return to the days of massive protests. Make Trump and his goons show their authoritative cards to the public.
A n my massive nationwide protest is scheduled for April 5
"Universities have always been the bedrock of freedom of expression."
Of course:
"Shouting Down Speakers Who Offend"
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/students/free-speech/2023/04/13/shouting-down-speakers-who-offend
"Protest at UC Berkeley shuts down talk by Israeli think tank leader"
https://www.berkeleyside.org/2024/02/27/uc-berkeley-israeli-speaker-protest
Universities, especially since 10.7.23, have NOT been bedrocks of freedom of expression.
totally agree
Columbia has an endowment of $14 billion. Seems like they may have been able to weather the storm longer than two weeks. The complete capitulation is embarrassing.
It's shameful, on so many levels, but you know what's even more distressing, at least to me, a former Columbia student ? That this surrender, this cowardly abdication in the name of money, stokes Trump's ego, this inflates him, like Ursula rising out of the sea, bloated and deranged. If only to prevent him from even greater madness, drunkenness with power, Columbia should not have caved. It twists my solar plexus into knots.
Why not take less money for research, for integrity's sake, and keep that research pure and honest, because it's clear that the money Columbia has prostrated itself to get is going to come with so many conditions, so many prohibitions on the direction it can go in and the results it's allowed to reach and publish, that it's not going to be reliable at all. This once-respected university's reputation is now absolutely tarnished.
Shameful.
As a Columbia University alumna, I am saddened to read the disasters that have befallen Columbia and the decision that the Administration at the school has made to capitulate to a dictator. While losing $400 million in Federal funds is not a picnic, Columbia admin might have figured out a way to go on without it and maintained their independence. I'm afraid now that Columbia is tainted, as Sarat states, and it will affect Columbia for the foreseeable future in terms of recruiting new students and faculty. A once-great university has been brought to its knees by a bunch of thugs in a corrupt power play.
Same here.
Just yesterday I wrote to Columbia physicist Brian Greene urging him to cancel his upcoming appearance at The Kennedy Center, suggesting he consult with colleagues at his university. Unfortunately, obeying in advance seems to be the ongoing theme in US higher education.
disgusting.
$400m is a lot, but cheap to give the old Three Fingered Salute to the felonious traitors in this administration. It would prove that academia can stand tall, giving props to all the other universities to tell them to f*** off, that their policies are sacrosanct and not for debate. Call their damned bluff! Take them to court with any number of constitutional arguments. Sorry Columbia gave in. 😞
Or just do less research but make it research with integrity. Any research done with this dirty money will be restricted in what it can look into and what results it's allowed to publish.
Excellent piece, Austin Sarat. I would quibble only with one point. You wrote: "When powerful institutions like Columbia give in to threats and pressure tactics, others get the message". Through its extremely poor performance first when attacked by the MAGA wing in Congress and now when attacked by Trump, Columbia has shown the world that it is not in fact a powerful institution. It is a weak supplicant, wafting in the cross winds of its own internal storms, unwilling to take principled positions. Columbia ultimately has shown the world that it is willing to compromise the values of a free and democratic academic community to try to preserve its financial position. Weak.
Never pay extortion!
We are living under the thumb of an administration of depravity. Every day is a trip to the locked ward. There is no depth to which they will not go for personal power. Power corrupts / Absolute power corrupts absolutely. —Lord Acton, 19th-century English historian.
You've lost far more than you can ever hope to gain. This is a sad and faint reminder of the shuttle with which you share the name. Their calculated risk led to a stronger spacecraft. I doubt that your calculation will similarly benefit higher education.
Eventually, the long forgotten Omarosa's prediction will come true: Every knee shall bow to (the short-fingered vulgarian).
Shades of Germany 1936, Third Reich style. This doesn’t bode well for democracy, education, or the United Stares of America. Hitler-style thuggery is prevalent in this Trump Regime. Are the camps being built?
"Shades of Germany 1936, Third Reich style."
You mean all the harassment of Jews by other Columbia students?
"Columbia University’s Anti-Semitism Problem"
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/03/columbia-antisemitism-israel-palestine-trump/682054/
"Jewish Columbia students were chased out of dorms, spat on, and pinned against walls: damning report"
https://www.yahoo.com/news/jewish-columbia-students-were-chased-194401690.html
I live in New York City. I am a Jew. I watched the "protests" unfolding. I watched buildings being vandalized. I watched Jewish businesses being tagged and vandalized. I saw Jewish students in fear on campus and throughout the city. My elementary school grandson witnessed a hate filled tirade on the street of Manhattan. I watched classes being disrupted by face covered walk-ins who proceeded to chant their demands and plastered their posters around the room. No one came in to remove the disrupters. It took days or weeks to call law enforcement to clear the vandalized buildings. Columbia had years to do the right thing by seriously protecting their students, staff, neighborhood businesses and buildings. It did nothing useful. While I abhor trump and his acolytes, I am glad Columbia is doing what it says it will do and what it should have done. The only item that should not have been demanded is the curriculum ultimatums. That's a school's prerogative. Columbia could have done all the things and not forfeited the $400 million. It could also have done all the things and said to the White House "Keep the money."
I like your comment because it is thoughtful and made me think. I reread the article. I reflected on another article in my local Chicago paper about how the Trump regime is investigating blue cities for antisemitism. My sister and nephew are Jewish as are several other family members. I am not sympathetic to what I perceive as the overly aggressive tactics of Palestinian protesters. I recoil at the seemingly-determined lack of understanding of Jewish history and Jewish leaders' contributions to civil rights expressed by many Palestinian supporters. But I don't believe the Trump regime is protecting Jews. I believe it is dividing and conquering, and the politics around the Hamas-Israeli war provides fertile ground to do this, so it is taking full advantage. The Trump regime represents White Christian Nationalism. Jewish people are not Christians and many are not white. What will be their standing once the White Christian Nationalists successfully divide and conquer? Arabs for Trump changed its name to Arabs for Peace when Trump came out with his horrific proposal to turn Gaza into a resort. Many Arabs backed him until that point. You do not believe in Trump, but your observations/experiences have led you to accept that it is okay for his administration to strongarm Columbia University. Those tactics (or others like them) can, indeed will, be used against Jews. To the extent that many Jewish people are intellectual leaders in our universities, the strongarming has already begun. I can be too accepting and not question ulterior motives. Perhaps this reflects an assumption that as a WASP, I will be safe. My loving stepmother, if she were alive today, would be exceedingly alarmed as a Jewish person by what is happening. She did question ulterior motives. I hear her voice as I write this, and I answer, yes, I will be exceedingly alarmed on her behalf. In her memory, I urge people to question their acceptance of the tactics of a corrupt (and fascist) administration because the outcome in a particular instance seems, to them, reasonably just.
I do not like HOW Columbia came to the decision to make these changes. I do like that Columbia IS making these changes.
It’s extortion. Plain and simple. It’s criminal. Students and learning will suffer.
Columbia University's endowment is in excess of $14 billion dollars, but it is willing to knuckle under to the threat of losing $400 million. A university's endowment is supposed to ensure its longevity and service to its community and to scholarship and learning. We are in a crisis that may lead to the destruction of this country and yet the university's leadership and board clutch at funding that $400 million from its own deep resources. Shame!
Whoa! $14 BILLION?! So it's not about the money after all. Columbia is just using that as an excuse to deal with some pesky problem faculty and students. Thanks for clearing that up for us, Susan.