Ceding to Trump, Columbia Agrees to Alter Policies

Signaling new stage in a president’s feud with elite institutions

Author

Matt Davis
March 22, 2025

For those of you who are new here, I read the top story in the New York Times every morning so that you don’t have to. If you were forwarded this, you can subscribe here. I’m also doing a five-minute video version of this, each morning at around 9 a.m. (depending on how long it takes me to read the newspaper). If you’d like to follow me on LinkedIn (you can always watch the recording later). If you subscribe to my Youtube channel it’ll also send you a notification when I’m “going live.”

This morning’s newsletter is brought to you from the floor of Penn Station. I’m off to New Jersey for the day to see my mate Charles for a game of squash and to have lunch with him and his wife.

This morning’s lead story by Troy Closson focuses on Columbia University’s Friday agreement to “overhaul its protest policies, security policies and Middle Eastern studies department in a remarkable concession to the Trump administration, which has refused to consider restoring $400 million in federal funds without major changes.”

You’ll recall from my newsletter a few days ago that the situation in the Middle East is complex and evolving. At the moment it involves killing innocent Palestinian children in their hundreds.

A good friend of mine protested the Vietnam draft on Columbia’s campus in the 1970s—he wrote the words “Dick” and “Nixon” on his 🍆, for the benefit of the army’s draft doctors, as presumably, he didn’t have the room to write “Richard.” He’s since won a Pulitzer and counts amongst the best and most accomplished Americans I can think of.

I mention that episode because Columbia’s campus, apart from being the fictional setting for the movie, “Ghostbusters”, has always had a storied role in the conscience of the nation. That the protesters these days are pro-Palestinian rather than anti-Vietnam War does not necessarily matter to me. The point is: you protest at Columbia over American foreign policy. 

Or: you used to.

The agreement has “stunned and dismayed many members of the faculty,” and could “signal a new stage in the administration’s clash with elite colleges and universities,” the story reports. 

Colleges around the country are facing federal inquiries and fear similar penalties to those imposed on Columbia. Administrators say that Columbia’s response to the White House’s demands “may set a dangerous precedent.”

This week, the Trump administration also canceled $175 million in federal funding for the university of Pennsylvania at least partly because it let a trans woman swim on its team.

The Trump administration said Columbia failed to protect its students and faculty from “antisemitic violence and harassment.” Now Columbia has agreed to hire a new internal security force of 36 “special officers” who will be empowered to remove people from campus or arrest them. The wearing of face masks on campus will also be banned for the purposes of concealing identity, with exceptions for health or religious reasons.

“Columbia will also adopt a formal definition of antisemitism, something many universities have shied away from even as they, like Columbia, faced pressure to do so amid protests on their campuses over the war in Gaza. Under the working definition, antisemitism could include “targeting Jews or Israelis for violence or celebrating violence against them” or “certain double standards applied to Israel,” among other issues.”

“Taken together, the administration’s plan — issued in an unsigned, four-page letter — reflected a stunning level of deference to the Trump administration from a top private research university.”

There’s more.

“In perhaps the most contentious move, Columbia said it would appoint a senior vice provost to oversee the Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies Department. The White House had demanded that the department be placed under academic receivership, a rare federal intervention in an internal process that is typically reserved as a last resort in response to extended periods of dysfunction.”

“Columbia did not refer to the move related to the Middle Eastern studies department as receivership, but several faculty members said that it appeared to resemble that measure.”

A former chair of the university’s Middle Eastern studies department, Sheldon Pollock, texted the Times to say: “This is a shameful day in the history of Columbia,” adding that it would “endanger academic freedom, faculty governance and the excellence of the American university system.”

This is definitely not the 1970s. Ever since competing protests began on campus in 2023:

“Since then, the Manhattan campus has experienced a rare summoning of the police to quell protests, the president’s resignation and the detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a recent graduate, by federal immigration officials.”

Most academics are outraged. Some, less so.

“Ester R. Fuchs, who co-chairs the university’s antisemitism task force, said that many of the administration’s changes appeared to be issues that the group had previously highlighted.

“What’s fascinating to me is a lot of these are things we needed to get done and were getting done, but now we’ve gotten done more quickly,” said Dr. Fuchs, who is also a professor of international and public affairs and political science.

She added: “We are completely supportive of principles of academic freedom.””

The university also said that the administration would work to adopt a university-wide “position of institutional neutrality.” Also:

“It said that it would move an independent panel of faculty, students and staff members who handle disciplinary procedures under the provost’s office — and that members would be “restricted to faculty and administrators only.””

The school also agreed to review its admissions policies for potential bias after it “identified a recent downturn in both Jewish and African American enrollment,” and last week announced a range of disciplinary actions against an undisclosed number of students.

Columbia didn’t mention the loss of Federal funding in its letter outlining it plans. However.

“Federal money is the lifeblood of major research universities, and some have begun to keep quiet on hot-button issues in hopes of escaping the administration’s ire. Many, including the University of California this week, have retreated from diversity-related efforts.”

The really surprising part of the story, it seems, is the idea that the academics in the Middle Eastern studies department will be overseen from outside:

“But putting the Middle Eastern studies department, which has long been in a pitched battle over its scholarship and the employment of professors who describe themselves as anti-Zionist, under outside scrutiny provoked unique outrage.

Columbia said that the senior vice provost would review curriculum and hiring in several of the department’s programs, including the Center for Palestine Studies and the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies. The university said the move was aimed at “promoting excellence in regional studies.”

But Michael Thaddeus, a Columbia math professor who described reading Dr. Armstrong’s letter with “profound disappointment and alarm,” called it “a giant step down a very dangerous road.”

He worried that the Middle Eastern studies department would effectively be run by “a member of Columbia’s thought police” who could interfere with anything from course offerings to faculty appointments. “It strikes at the heart of academic freedom,” Professor Thaddeus said.

“Of all the bad things,” he continued, “this one is really the worst.””

A “giant step down a very dangerous road” is a strong statement from a math professor.

Here’s another strong quote in Le Monde this morning:

"Shaking under government pressure, Columbia crumbled," said Tyler Coward, the lead counsel for government affairs at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. "If Columbia – with its immense resources and influence – can't stand up to government demands that threaten free speech, what are other colleges to do?"

And presumably that’s the point. Not only to whip Columbia into line but to scare the other 52 universities currently under investigation to get into line. Once again, the administration has stuffed a pool ball into a sock and is going after the biggest boy in the reform school. I hate to keep using this image but it continues to strike a chord with me as I’m reading the newspaper so that you don’t have to:

Ray Winstone in “Scum,” 1979.

The dean of UC Berkeley’s Law School responded to the news with a scathing opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times this morning — oddly, the L.A. Times chose not to endorse in the presidential race, sparking waves of resignation, so it’s hardly a beacon of courage itself. Erwin Chemerinsky writes about two capitulations. Firstly, by a major law firm targeted by the Trump administration for its staff having represented people it doesn’t like on high-profile matters:

Trump said Thursday that the national law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP had reached a settlement with his administration. A week earlier, the president had issued an executive order, “Addressing Risks from Paul Weiss” that revoked security clearances for all lawyers in the firm, ended its government contracts with the firm and limited access to government buildings for those working at the firm.

Why was Paul, Weiss targeted? The primary reason given was that one of its former partners worked in the Manhattan district attorney’s office and was part of the legal team that investigated Trump in the case that later resulted in his prosecution and conviction on business fraud charges. Also, the executive order says that a Paul, Weiss lawyer represented clients suing Jan. 6, 2021, rioters.

This is nothing but blatantly illegal retribution. A federal judge in issuing a temporary restraining order against a similar Trump executive order directed at the law firm Perkins Coie, which had represented Hillary Clinton, said that action was an “extreme, unprecedented effort” and that it “casts a chilling harm of blizzard proportion across the entire legal profession.” The law is clear that lawyers are not to be punished for representing clients or for their lawful advocacy.

But Trump on Thursday said he was withdrawing the Paul, Weiss executive order and in exchange the firm would contribute $40 million in legal services to causes Trump has championed, including “the President’s Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, and other mutually agreed projects.”

As for Columbia, “such a cut in federal funds is illegal in many ways,” the professor says, outlining several, very clearly. I won’t go into the details but they are very clear and very obvious when you spend time reading through. Then he questions the University’s strategy of capitulation, and that of Paul, Weiss: 

Columbia had every reason to file suit, challenging the order. Instead, it conceded, amid claims that there was overlap between what Trump wanted and reforms it was already considering. The Trump administration’s demands included changing Columbia’s admissions criteria, establishing rules related to protest that could restrict student speech and putting Columbia’s Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies department under academic “receivership” for at least five years, taking control away from its faculty, a potential violation of academic freedom.

Choosing to make a deal rather than fight the president is understandable. Litigation is expensive and can be protracted. The president’s attack could seriously damage Paul, Weiss and Columbia; they want their nightmare to be over and giving in to the president seems the fastest way to accomplish that.

But both the university and law firm have substantial resources to challenge the Trump administration challenges, and their capitulation will have enormous costs for other schools and law firms, some with fewer resources, as the president determines his next targets. Trump has taken a page from the playbook of all dictators: govern by fear and intimidation.

If democracy is to survive, though, it must be because the illegal and unconstitutional acts of the Trump administration are stopped. That requires that those targeted fight back.

And of course, as we all know, reading the newspaper and talking about what’s in it with your friends and family is one of the best ways to fight back. It’s easy to close the newspaper and try to ignore the news at times like this. But remember, the vast majority of Americans support elections and democratic processes. If you don’t like this kind of authoritarian nonsense you can pick up a pool ball and stuff it into a sock at the ballot box. That’s what I really don’t understand. Trump and his colleagues are acting like there won’t be accountability for this kind of behavior, down the line. It’s madness.

I appreciate you reading the newspaper with me so that you don’t have to, and would appreciate it even more if you’d share this with a friend so that they can read it too.

Have a great weekend! (Or, you know, an adequately acceptable one in the current climate, having read the newspaper. I’m all for stuffing one’s emotions into a jar, closing the jar, and then stuffing it down, personally. Stuff it down!)

Matt Davis lives in Manhattan with his wife and kid.