Latest news with #academicfreedom
New York Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- New York Times
Faculty Support of George Mason's President Draws Federal Investigation
When the Department of Justice recently opened an investigation into George Mason University over accusations that the university's diversity programs were discriminatory, many members of the faculty were outraged. Professors quickly published a resolution supporting their president and the university's efforts around diversity. Now, Justice Department officials say they will investigate the faculty, too. In a letter sent on Friday, the Trump administration said it would seek drafts of the faculty resolution, all written communications among the Faculty Senate members who drafted the resolution, and all communications between those faculty members and the office of the university's president, Gregory Washington. The university referred requests for comment to an outside attorney, who did not immediately respond. Free speech advocates quickly denounced the move as an attack on academic freedom. The faculty resolution affirmed the university's previous stance that 'diversity is our strength.' It also defended Dr. Washington, the university's first Black president, who has been a target of the Trump administration. Faculty senate resolutions are positions taken by a university's elected faculty body, like the one at George Mason. They typically carry no force and normally attract little notice beyond the campus newspaper. But these are not normal times for higher education. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
South China Morning Post
5 days ago
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Chinese eyeing US degrees turn more discerning – is the opportunity still worth the risk?
Jason Lin of Xiamen surprised his mother this year by applying to 10 undergraduate schools in the United States and receiving a US$15,000 annual scholarship from Brandeis University near Boston. There, he intends to earn a master's degree in economics over the next five years. But to his mother, it's like he's venturing into the wild, compounding the anxiety parents often feel when their adult children leave the nest. She's afraid of 'instability' in the US. And Lin, 19, has concerns that even a traffic ticket could get him deported. But he weighed the pros and cons, laid it all on the table for his mother, and decided on Brandeis in time for the coming fall semester. Despite a sharp increase in US-China tensions this year, Chinese students such as Lin are still pursuing American higher education much as they have in the past, but they are being more selective than before, according to applicants and university officials. 'Basically, the thought of going to the States came to me when I was in ninth grade,' Lin explained. He expects more academic freedom in the US than in other countries and recalls the 'vibe' in New York when he visited as a tourist. Well-known schools, highly ranked programmes associated with the majors of students' choices, and flexible financial aid packages have become bigger draws. And if the university campus is located in a relatively safe American city, it gets bonus points in the selection process among Chinese applicants. 'The US does have the pre-eminent global research universities, for now at least,' said Rory Truex, an assistant professor with Princeton University's Department of Politics. 'And many students are willing to take the risks to get access to that opportunity.'
The Guardian
7 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘Extortion': Columbia University's deal with White House met with mixed reactions
Columbia University's long anticipated deal with the Trump administration after months of negotiations has drawn both condemnation and praise from faculty, students, and alumni – a sign that the end of negotiations will hardly restore harmony on a campus profoundly divided since the beginning of Israel's war in Gaza. The deal will reinstate $400m in federal funds the administration cut from the university after it accused it of allowing antisemitism to fester on campus. But it will cost Columbia some $220m in legal settlements, as well as a host of new measures that critics warn significantly restrict the university's independence and will further repress pro-Palestinian speech. The agreement – the government's first with one of dozens of universities it has accused of enabling antisemitism and threatened with funding cuts and other measures – is likely to have major repercussions on academic freedom in the US and future relations between higher education institutions and an administration that has described them as 'the enemy'. David Pozen, a professor at Columbia Law School, slammed the deal as giving 'legal form to an extortion scheme', he wrote. 'The means being used to push through these reforms are as unprincipled as they are unprecedented. Higher education policy in the United States is now being developed through ad hoc deals, a mode of regulation that is not only inimical to the ideal of the university as a site of critical thinking but also corrosive to the democratic order and to law itself,' Pozen continued. Not all Columbia affiliates were as critical. The Stand Columbia Society, a group of alumni, students and faculty that have for months championed some of the same reforms demanded by the Trump administration, welcomed the announcement. 'The Stand Columbia Society believes this agreement represents an excellent outcome that restores research funding, facilitates real structural reforms, and preserves core principles of academic freedom and institutional autonomy,' they wrote. 'We have been steadfast and consistent on what is the right thing to do, and today, both Columbia's leaders and the federal government deserve credit for achieving this result.' Another group, Columbia Faculty and Staff Supporting Israel, wrote in a statement that they were 'extremely happy that federal funding is restored and will be reading the agreement carefully to verify that it addresses antisemitism and anti-Israeli hate'. In addition to paying $200m over three years to the government to settle antidiscrimination cases against it and $21m to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Columbia agreed to codify a series of measures it adopted in order to initiate negotiations in March, including a partial mask ban and the placement of an academic department under receivership. Columbia also agreed to release its admissions data and is required to show that hiring and admissions are 'merit-based' and not based on considerations of diversity and race. Columbia also agreed to require international applicants to answer 'questions designed to elicit their reasons for wishing to study in the United States', and committed to developing materials 'to socialize all students to campus norms and values more broadly'. An independent monitor will oversee the deal and report to the government on its progression every six months. Earlier this week, Columbia disciplined about 80 students who were involved in a pro-Palestinian protest at a campus library in May – doling out sanctions including probation, one-year to three-year suspensions, the revocation of degrees, and expulsions. The measures marked the largest mass suspension in Columbia's history and the harshest mass disciplinary action by any school since Israel's war in Gaza started, student activists said. They also followed the announcement last week that the university would adopt a deeply controversial definition that conflates antisemitism with criticism of Israel, severely restricting the kind of pro-Palestinian speech allowed on campus. Last week, the university also confirmed that it had removed control of disciplinary processes from the university senate to the provost's office – a move that critics say will further empower administrators as they seek to curtail pro-Palestinian speech. 'Columbia is choosing to pander to a lawless administration to restore their federal funding – instead of protecting the rights of its students and faculty who are bravely speaking out against a genocide,' said Sabiya Ahamed, a staff attorney at Palestine Legal who has worked with several Columbia students facing disciplinary measures. 'Columbia is abdicating its mission as a center of learning, and agreeing to operate like an arm of the state to censor and punish speech the Trump administration doesn't like. With its newly announced policies, Columbia is threatening to bulldoze over the rights of all of its Palestinian and associated students to an even greater degree than before.' While it imposed severe restrictions, Columbia's deal with the administration fell short of sanctioning some of the most severe measures initially floated, which reportedly included a legally binding consent decree as well as an overhaul to the university's governance structure that would have further limited faculty and students' say in university matters. Last week, pro-Israel advocates on campus had slammed the terms of the deal, which were leaked to the rightwing Washington Free Beacon, as insufficient and weak. Elisha Baker, a Columbia college student and co-chair of the pro-Israel student group Aryeh, wrote in a statement to the university's student newspaper that the reported deal 'would completely ignore the structural and cultural reforms we need and effectively tell the world of higher education that discrimination is okay if they can afford it'. On social media, other pro-Israel advocates condemned the deal as 'barely a slap on the wrist'. But other Jewish faculty and students criticized the invocation of antisemitism to crack down on free speech on campus. 'While Israel is engaged in a genocidal war through starvation and ethnic cleansing, Columbia has labeled protest against Israel antisemitic and admitted to the disingenuous claim that it has not done enough to protect Jews on campus,' said Marianne Hirsch, a retired professor at Columbia University and an expert on the Holocaust. 'Anyone who has studied (or experienced) anti-Jewish prejudice, as I have, knows how dangerous it is to single out one campus group – Jews—at the expense of all others for special treatment.' That the terms of the deal did not meet the most extreme scenarios was hardly cause for celebration for those critical of Columbia for making a deal at all. 'Even if a deal does not constitute wholesale capitulation, it would amount to, at best, a pyrrhic victory for Columbia and for higher education in the United States,' said Joseph Slaughter, a Columbia literature professor and member of the university senate, ahead of the deal's announcement. 'While an agreement may preserve a measure of institutional independence and academic freedom, it nonetheless would legitimize the federal administration's use of extortionist tactics, erode academic autonomy, diminish the global standing of American universities, and set a troubling precedent for normalizing political interference in education and research.' Columbia administrators, already facing widespread criticism from opposing constituencies on and off campus over their handling of pro-Palestinian encampments last year, were widely accused of caving to the Trump administration when the university became the first to be targeted for funding cuts in March. The university's acceptance of a series of 'preconditions' to negotiating the restoration of the funds – including new restrictions on protests, and the placement of an entire academic department under receivership – drew condemnation and warnings that Columbia was a 'canary in the coal mine of totalitarianism'. The university saw further backlash after Harvard University, faced with similar demands from the Trump administration, chose to sue instead. Columbia's administrators have tried to push back against the notion that the university has caved to Trump. 'The fact that we've faced pressure from the government does not make the problems on our campuses any less real,' acting university president Claire Shipman – a board member and the university's third president since the war in Gaza started – wrote in an email to the community last week. 'In my view, any government agreement we reach is only a starting point for change.' But students and faculty critical of the university's handling of pro-Palestinian protests have long maintained that Columbia administrators were more aligned with the White House demands than they let on. 'Columbia didn't 'capitulate' to the Trump administration's Title VI threats – it welcomed the excuse,' Columbia University Apartheid Divest, the main group behind last year's encampments, wrote in a social media post last week. 'The university has long sought to implement IHRA and crack down on Palestine solidarity. Federal pressure just gave them the cover to do what they already wanted.'
CNN
7 days ago
- Politics
- CNN
Trump administration still hopeful about a Harvard deal after Columbia reaches settlement
The Trump administration is still optimistic about the possibility of reaching a deal with Harvard University after it announced a $200 million settlement with Columbia University on Wednesday. 'While there's a lawsuit pending with Harvard, and I'm sure that lawsuit will play out, I do hope that Harvard will continue to come to the table with negotiations. Those talks are continuing, and we'd like to have a resolution there, outside of the courts,' Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a phone interview with CNN on Thursday. Harvard faced off with the Trump administration in court on Monday, arguing that the administration's $2 billion freeze in federal funding for research was in violation of the school's First Amendment rights. The case has become a flashpoint in a major clash over academic freedom, campus oversight and federal funding. The judge has not made a final ruling in the case, but Harvard has asked for a decision to be made no later than September 3, when it says some of the funding cuts could become more permanent. McMahon pointed to some recent actions taken by Harvard as positive steps, including the departure of the heads of the Middle Eastern Studies center. She described the current state of talks with the university as 'ongoing' but declined to provide additional details. She also declined to provide information about the scale of any settlement the administration hopes to achieve with Harvard, which has a larger endowment than Columbia. In a statement shortly after the Columbia deal was announced, McMahon described the move as a 'seismic shift' for higher education that could serve as a 'roadmap' for other schools. She said that 'other universities are already looking at' the template provided by the Columbia agreement. 'Colleges and universities are understanding at this particular point that they have some issues they need to address, and I think that they are coming to the table to do that,' she said. McMahon added that there are 'other investigations that are going on' and that the Trump administration has sent letters to some other universities 'letting them know that we are investigating … but I would prefer that we will not go public with those right now.'
The Guardian
7 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘Extortion scheme': Columbia's deal with White House met with mixed reactions
Columbia University's long anticipated deal with the Trump administration after months of negotiations has drawn both condemnation and praise from faculty, students, and alumni – a sign that the end of negotiations will hardly restore harmony on a campus profoundly divided since the beginning of Israel's war in Gaza. The deal will reinstate $400m in federal funds the administration cut from the university after it accused it of allowing antisemitism to fester on campus. But it will cost Columbia some $220m in legal settlements, as well as a host of new measures that critics warn significantly restrict the university's independence and will further repress pro-Palestinian speech. The agreement – the government's first with one of dozens of universities it has accused of enabling antisemitism and threatened with funding cuts and other measures – is likely to have major repercussions on academic freedom in the US and future relations between higher education institutions and an administration that has described them as 'the enemy'. David Pozen, a professor at Columbia Law School, slammed the deal as giving 'legal form to an extortion scheme', he wrote. 'The means being used to push through these reforms are as unprincipled as they are unprecedented. Higher education policy in the United States is now being developed through ad hoc deals, a mode of regulation that is not only inimical to the ideal of the university as a site of critical thinking but also corrosive to the democratic order and to law itself,' Pozen continued. Not all Columbia affiliates were as critical. The Stand Columbia Society, a group of alumni, students and faculty that have for months championed some of the same reforms demanded by the Trump administration, welcomed the announcement. 'The Stand Columbia Society believes this agreement represents an excellent outcome that restores research funding, facilitates real structural reforms, and preserves core principles of academic freedom and institutional autonomy,' they wrote. 'We have been steadfast and consistent on what is the right thing to do, and today, both Columbia's leaders and the federal government deserve credit for achieving this result.' Another group, Columbia Faculty and Staff Supporting Israel, wrote in a statement that they were 'extremely happy that federal funding is restored and will be reading the agreement carefully to verify that it addresses antisemitism and anti-Israeli hate'. Earlier this week, Columbia disciplined about 80 students who were involved in a pro-Palestinian protest at a campus library in May – doling out sanctions including probation, one-year to three-year suspensions, the revocation of degrees, and expulsions. The measures marked the largest mass suspension in Columbia's history and the harshest mass disciplinary action by any school since Israel's war in Gaza started, student activists said. They also followed the announcement last week that the university would adopt a deeply controversial definition that conflates antisemitism with criticism of Israel, severely restricting the kind of pro-Palestinian speech allowed on campus. Last week, the university also confirmed that it had removed control of disciplinary processes from the university senate to the provost's office – a move that critics say will further empower administrators as they seek to curtail pro-Palestinian speech. 'Columbia is choosing to pander to a lawless administration to restore their federal funding – instead of protecting the rights of its students and faculty who are bravely speaking out against a genocide,' said Sabiya Ahamed, a staff attorney at Palestine Legal who has worked with several Columbia students facing disciplinary measures. 'Columbia is abdicating its mission as a center of learning, and agreeing to operate like an arm of the state to censor and punish speech the Trump administration doesn't like. With its newly announced policies, Columbia is threatening to bulldoze over the rights of all of its Palestinian and associated students to an even greater degree than before.' While it imposed severe restrictions, Columbia's deal with the administration fell short of sanctioning some of the most severe measures initially floated, which reportedly included a legally binding consent decree as well as an overhaul to the university's governance structure that would have further limited faculty and students' say in university matters. Last week, pro-Israel advocates on campus had slammed the terms of the deal, which were leaked to the rightwing Washington Free Beacon, as insufficient and weak. Elisha Baker, a Columbia college student and co-chair of the pro-Israel student group Aryeh, wrote in a statement to the university's student newspaper that the reported deal 'would completely ignore the structural and cultural reforms we need and effectively tell the world of higher education that discrimination is okay if they can afford it'. On social media, other pro-Israel advocates condemned the deal as 'barely a slap on the wrist'. That the terms of the deal did not meet the most extreme scenarios was hardly cause for celebration for those critical of Columbia for making a deal at all. 'Even if a deal does not constitute wholesale capitulation, it would amount to, at best, a pyrrhic victory for Columbia and for higher education in the United States,' said Joseph Slaughter, a Columbia literature professor and member of the university senate, ahead of the deal's announcement. 'While an agreement may preserve a measure of institutional independence and academic freedom, it nonetheless would legitimize the federal administration's use of extortionist tactics, erode academic autonomy, diminish the global standing of American universities, and set a troubling precedent for normalizing political interference in education and research.' Columbia administrators, already facing widespread criticism from opposing constituencies on and off campus over their handling of pro-Palestinian encampments last year, were widely accused of caving to the Trump administration when the university became the first to be targeted for funding cuts in March. The university's acceptance of a series of 'preconditions' to negotiating the restoration of the funds – including new restrictions on protests, and the placement of an entire academic department under receivership – drew condemnation and warnings that Columbia was a 'canary in the coal mine of totalitarianism'. The university saw further backlash after Harvard University, faced with similar demands from the Trump administration, chose to sue instead. Columbia's administrators have tried to push back against the notion that the university has caved to Trump. 'The fact that we've faced pressure from the government does not make the problems on our campuses any less real,' acting university president Claire Shipman – a board member and the university's third president since the war in Gaza started – wrote in an email to the community last week. 'In my view, any government agreement we reach is only a starting point for change.' But students and faculty critical of the university's handling of pro-Palestinian protests have long maintained that Columbia administrators were more aligned with the White House demands than they let on. 'Columbia didn't 'capitulate' to the Trump administration's Title VI threats – it welcomed the excuse,' Columbia University Apartheid Divest, the main group behind last year's encampments, wrote in a social media post last week. 'The university has long sought to implement IHRA and crack down on Palestine solidarity. Federal pressure just gave them the cover to do what they already wanted.'
