Former Columbia University students, organizations call Trump administration demands a violation of academic freedom

CBS News

20-03-2025

The deadline is looming for Columbia University to respond to demands on tightening restrictions on campus protests.
The Trump administration says the demands are pre-conditions for opening talks on restoring $400 million in suspended federal funding.
As the deadline approaches, faculty, former students and several organizations said Thursday the ultimatums are a violation of free speech and academic freedom.
"We want Columbia to call for the immediate release of Mahmoud Khalil and other detained affiliates to protect the principles of academic freedom, reaffirm its commitment to being a sanctuary campus," Columbia graduate Michael Thomas Carter said.
Carter is one of about 900 Columbia graduates who signed a petition calling on the university to stand up for student activists like Khalil,
who remains in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody for his role in pro-Palestinian campus protests last summer
, and against the administration's demands.
"The complete authoritarianism and suppression Columbia has facilitated from the Trump administration is disturbing and a violation for both the values of free speech and the values of academic freedom that should be core to any university," Carter said.
On Thursday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations New York was granted a temporary restraining order to prevent Columbia from complying with federal orders. The New York Civil Liberties Union also sent a letter to the federal agencies, arguing the Trump administration failed to follow proper notifications and due process procedures.
"It's extremely unsettling for everyone associated with Columbia University and universities around the country," said Sheldon Pollock, former chair of Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies at Columbia.
"The fear is we are going to be Musked like the Department of Education, Social Security," Pollock added, an apparent reference to Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency's efforts to cut the size of the federal government.
The Trump administration
canceled the university's federal grants earlier this month
, accusing it of inaction despite persistent harassment of Jewish students, And last week
sent a letter laying out demands Columbia must commit to in order to have the $400 million, which is mainly used for scientific research, restored
.
"Cutting that funding means people lose their jobs, labs shut down, experiments stop running, research treating sick people suddenly stops, directly impacting people in my community," said Dr. Joseph Howley, associate professor in Columbia's Department of Classics.
Katrina Armstrong, the university's interim president, said Wednesday that Columbia "will not waver from our principles and the values of academic freedom," but did not say if the administration will comply with the demands, which include a mask ban on campus, enforcing discipline of Hamilton Hall protesters and placing the Middle East, South Asian and African Studies department under academic receivership.
"Receivership simply means the university will take over the administration of the department, and that would violate long-standing practices," Pollock said.
CBS News New York reached out to Columbia on Thursday, but was told the university does not have anything else to add at the moment.