Under threat from Trump, Columbia University agrees to policy changes

Under threat from the Trump administration, Columbia University has agreed to implement a suite of policy changes, including overhauling its rules for protests and conducting an immediate review of its Middle Eastern studies department.

The changes, detailed in a letter sent by interim president, Katrina Armstrong, came one week after the Trump administration ordered the Ivy League school to implement those and other changes in order to continue receiving federal funding, an ultimatum widely criticised in academia as an attack on academic freedom.

In her letter, Armstrong said the university would immediately appoint a senior vice provost to conduct a thorough review of the portfolio of its regional studies programs, starting immediately with the Middle East.

Columbia will also bar protests inside academic buildings and the wearing of face masks on campus for the purposes of concealing one's identity. An exception would be made for people wearing them for health reasons.

The Trump administration pulled $400 million in research grants and other federal funding, and had threatened to cut more, over the university's handling of protests against Israel's military campaign in Gaza. The White House has labelled the protests antisemitic, a label rejected by those who participated in the student-led demonstrations.

As a precondition for restoring funding, federal officials demanded that the university to place its Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies Department under academic receivership for a minimum of five years.

They also told the university to ban masks on campus, adopt a new definition of antisemitism, abolish its current process for disciplining students and deliver a plan to reform undergraduate admissions, international recruiting, and graduate admissions practices.

Columbia said it had agreed to do many of those things, including adopt a definition of antisemitism.