The War against North-East United States Education.
From The Chronicle of Higher Education (Daily Briefing: Columbia’s crises contagion, email, 11 March 2025, 20:30). Australians be warn, this could come our way without intellectual and socio-political vigilance.
The Trump administration pushed long-simmering crises to a head at an Ivy League institution last weekend. And early signs suggest the Ivy League has little appetite for pushing back.
The Trump administration pounded its chest after shocking Columbia University this weekend by canceling $400 million in federal grants and arresting a Palestinian activist who is a former student in university-owned housing. Immigration officials also sought to take into custody a second international student but were not allowed to enter her apartment, the Associated Press reported.
“The task force is sending a message: The Trump administration and [Attorney General] Pam Bondi will not tolerate antisemitism on college campuses,” Leo Terrell, who leads a Justice Department task force to combat antisemitism, said on Fox News.
Columbia leaders have been measured … or meek, depending on your perspective. Interim President Katrina Armstrong committed to “working with the federal government to address their legitimate concerns” and to fight antisemitism after the funding cuts were announced on Friday. A university spokesperson declined comment to the Associated Press on Mahmoud Khalil’s detention over the weekend, and the university posted that it will follow the law.
Don’t forget: There is a playbook for a different response. A combative institution might have decried being deprived of grants like the $1.1 million
Columbia is losing to study opioid exposure on preterm infants. Leaders appealing to principles might argue that revoking federal funding without following lengthy processes is neither legal nor good governance. A transparent university might come forward with as much clear information as possible about an arrest in a private area of campus that’s likely to lead to a deportation.
But the Trump administration has signaled it’s not finished with its punishments. Columbia has more than $5 billion in federal grant commitments, and administration officials have suggested they want to cut more.
And Columbia wasn’t ready to treat a second Trump administration transactionally or relationally. Top Columbia leaders contributed more than $4.1 million to candidates running for federal office in 2020 and 2024, the Columbia Daily Spectator student newspaper found last fall. Almost 88 percent went to Democrats. At one point, as Congress was about to heap unwelcome attention on the university’s antisemitism policies, the co-chair of Columbia’s board texted “If we are keeping our head down, maybe we shouldn’t meet with Republicans.”
“We’ve never had our government sort of turn against us as citizens, as educators, as researchers, as people working for the betterment of human health,” Donna L. Farber, a professor of microbiology and immunology who leads a lab at Columbia, told The Chronicle.
Why not sue now? Michael C. Dorf, a Cornell University law professor, has offered theories: The Trump administration has legal authority to cancel some of Columbia’s funding for reasons that aren’t related to antidiscrimination. Columbia leaders are worried the administration will freeze them out of future grants. Or Congress could cut funding for Columbia.
You can practically hear the hush falling over the Ivy League. Harvard University temporarily froze hiring as it assesses “changes in federal policy,” leaders announced on Monday. The University of Pennsylvania froze hiring, stopped salary adjustments, and announced a review of capital spending.
Penn faces greater disruptions than it did from the 2008 financial crisis or Covid-19 pandemic, leaders wrote, according to The Daily Pennsylvanian student newspaper.
Will the hush fall elsewhere? The Trump administration closed Monday by warning dozens more colleges. The U.S. Department of Education told all colleges currently under investigation for allegations of antisemitic discrimination that they could face sanctions if they don’t protect Jewish students.
That’s a diverse list of 60 colleges, including wealthy institutions like Princeton University, liberal-arts colleges like Illinois Wesleyan University, public flagships like Ohio State University, and lesser-known public institutions like George Mason University.
“This is the first arrest of many to come,” Trump posted on social media about Khalil. However, a federal judge temporarily blocked the administration from deporting Khalil as his arrest is challenged in court.
The bigger picture: Columbia is now the test case of just how much the government leviathan can use its muscle to reshape campus life.
For more:
📱 The immigration arrest at Columbia stoked outrage and raised legal questions, The Chronicle’s Alissa Gary reports.
📱 Barnard college is mired in a debate about discipline for pro-Palestinian activists, The Chronicle’s Maya Stahl writes.
📚 Bureaucratic mechanisms meant to excise bigotry were always at risk of being manipulated by demagogues, Len Gutkin writes in The Review newsletter.
📚 Trump’s threats against higher education’s independence are putting the larger constitutional order at risk, David H. Guston argues in The Chronicle Review.
📚 Columbia should fight the rescinding of grants and contracts in court and denounce it for what it is: McCarthyism, David A. Bell argues in The Chronicle Review.
Featured Image:
Neville Buch
Latest posts by Neville Buch (see all)
- Mathematical monism, Perceptive Pluralism, and Intent - March 21, 2025
- The Cognitive Barrier of Prejudice - March 20, 2025
- 2025 THE Most International University in the World - March 20, 2025