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Columbia University will regulate aspects of its governance after pressure from the Trump administration that has sparked fear of restrictions on academic freedom across the US.
Katrina Armstrong, the Provisional President of Columbia, on Friday described a series of measures – including the centralization of disciplinary procedures against students and the appointment of a senior official to “review” his regional studies programs, starting with those covering the Middle East.
“At all times, we are guided by our values, establishing academic freedom, free expression, open investigation and respect for all the decision we make,” Armstrong said in a statement
The mass, which was criticized by the faculties of Ivy League institution and national academic associations, followed a fierce campaign led by Republicans claiming anti -Semitism on its New York Campus lit by protests following the Hamas attack October 7, 2023 in Israel and Israel’s subsequent offensive in Gaza.
Federal officials withdrew $ 400 million in funding from Colombia earlier this month and threatened to reduce future financial support unless the university quickly met a series of reform requests.
This aroused a week of intense negotiations that included the pressure of Colombia’s lawyers to prevent academic associations that start legal challenges for the validity of the Trump administration’s requirements.
Measures announced on Friday included initiatives such as the centralization of student discipline, the prohibition of masks that hide the identity of the protesters and the appointment of a senior vice president to examine “all aspects” of leadership, curriculum and appointments of non -called faculties and ensure that programs are “comprehensive and balanced”.
However, the university stopped meeting the Government’s demands to impose official “Academic Receipt” on the Department of Middle Eastern Studies, South Asia for five years and to abolish its judicial board. On the contrary, the president will have much stronger control over board membership.
Michael Thaddeus, Vice President of the Columbia Chapter of the American Association of University Professors, called the measures “deeply disappointing and alarming”.
Speaking in a personal capacity, he said: “The appointment of a new senior vice president for regional studies should not be used to police the content of research and teaching for controversial topics in Colombia. This would hit in the heart of our academic freedom.”
Lynn Pasquarla, president of the American Colleges and Universities Association, said: “This undermines the force of American Higher Education, which presupposes freedom from unreasonable government interference and unjust political impact on the curriculum.”
At a node of concerns by Republicans and some academics that many American universities have been dominated by the faculty with more progressive thoughts, Colombia also pledged that its research for the new faculty “will be expanded to ensure intellectual diversity throughout our courses and scholarships”.
He noted that there was a recent decline in Jewish and African -American census and said “we will closely consider those issues.”
