Columbia University agrees to sweeping policy changes amid Trump’s ultimatum

Facing intense pressure from the Trump administration, Columbia University has agreed to implement a series of policy changes after the administration threatened to revoke federal funding worth USD 400 million, including research grants and other financial support.

As part of the sweeping reforms, Columbia University will put its Middle East studies department under new supervision and overhaul its rules for protests and student discipline. The university will also adopt a new definition of antisemitism and expand “intellectual diversity” by staffing up its Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies, according to a letter published Friday by the interim president, Katrina Armstrong.

The university also plans to ban face masks on campus and empower security officers to remove or arrest individuals as part of the new reforms.

Earlier this month, the Trump administration withdrew USD 400 million in research grants and other funding, citing concerns over the university’s handling of protests against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. To reinstate these funds, along with billions more in potential future grants, Donald Trump recently issued an ultimatum, requiring the university to implement nine specific reforms to its academic and security policies without delay.

One of the key demands was to place the Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies departments under academic receivership for at least five years, effectively stripping control from its faculty. This approach, where a university appoints an external professor or administrator to manage a dysfunctional department, is rarely used by academic institutions and is virtually unprecedented for the US government to impose such a requirement, according to a report by news agency Reuters.

The university will also appoint a new senior provost to review the leadership and curriculum of several international studies departments to “ensure the educational offerings are comprehensive and balanced”.

The announcement drew immediate condemnation from some faculty members and free speech groups, who accused the university of caving to President Donald Trump’s largely unprecedented intrusion upon the school’s academic freedom.

“Columbia’s capitulation endangers academic freedom and campus expression nationwide,” Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement.

Professor Jonathan Zimmerman, an education historian at the University of Pennsylvania and a “proud” graduate of Columbia, called it a sad day for the university.

“Historically, there is no precedent for this,” Zimmerman said. “The government is using the money as a cudgel to micromanage a university”.

However, the White House had yet to respond to Columbia’s memo as of Friday evening, and the status of the funding remained unclear.

The Trump administration has repeatedly accused Columbia University of failing to address antisemitism during protests against Israel that began on campus last spring and soon spread to other universities. Recently, several students involved in last year’s pro-Palestinian protests have faced legal action, including detention and the threat of deportation.