In the threat of the Trump administration, Columbia University stated that it made a large number of political changes on Friday, including the revision of its rules for protests and the immediate review of the Department of Studies in the Middle East.
The changes described in a letter from the interim presidents of New York City University, Katrina Armstrong, found a week after the Trump government of the Ivy League School had ordered to take these and other reforms or to lose all federal financing, an ultimatum that was widely criticized in academies as an attack on academic freedom.
In her letter, Armstrong said that the university would immediately appoint a Senior Vice Provost to carry out a thorough review of the portfolio of its regional study programs, “starting with the Middle East”.
Columbia will also revise his long -term disciplinary process and turn protests in academic buildings. The students should not wear facial masks on the campus “to hide the identity of their own identity”. An exception would be made for people who carry them for health reasons.
In order to expand the “intellectual diversity” within the university, Columbia will also appoint new faculty members to his institute for Israel and Jewish study department. A new definition of anti -Semitism will also be used and programming in its Tel Aviv Center, a research center based in Israel.
The political changes largely voted the requirements of the Trump administration to the university, which were drawn in the research grants and other federal financing of 400 million US dollars, and had to shorten more military campaign in Gaza with the treatment of protests against Israel’s military campaign.
The doctoral student of Columbia University, Ranjani Srinivasan, calls allegations that she is a “terrorist sympathizer” and CBCS David Common tells that she feared for her safety after civil servants of the US immigration and customs authority have appeared at her door.
The White House referred to the protests anti -Semitic, a label that was rejected by those who took part in the demonstrations led by students.
A message that was looking for a comment was left to a spokesman for the educational department.
As a “prerequisite” for the restoration of the financing, the federal officials demanded that the university provide its department department of the Middle East, South Asian and African studies under “academic recipients” for at least five years.
They also asked the university to prohibit masks on campus, to cause a new definition of anti -Semitism to abolish their current process for the discipline of students and a plan for reforming approvals in the basic course, international recruitment and conclusion of the admission practices “.
Historians described the order as an unprecedented penetration into the rights of the university, which was long treated by the U.S. Supreme Court as an extension of the first change.
On Friday, freedom of speech immediately condemned the decision in Columbia.
“A sad day for Columbia and for our democracy,” said Jameel Jaffer, director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, in a social media post.
