Page 2 - Columbia

Why is Trump targeting Harvard and other universities and what's at stake?

Harvard, Columbia, and over 60 other institutions are facing funding cuts, audits, and federal demands from the Trump administration in the name of combating antisemitism and ideological bias

Immigration judge rules Columbia activist Mahmoud Khalil can be deported

Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil can be kicked out of the US as a national security risk, an immigration judge in Louisiana has found during a hearing over the legality of deporting the activist who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. The government's contention that Khalil's presence in the United States posed potentially serious foreign policy consequences was enough to satisfy requirements for his deportation, Immigration Judge Jamee E Comans said at the conclusion of a hearing in Jena on Friday. Comans said the government had established by clear and convincing evidence that he is removable. Lawyers for Khalil said they plan to keep fighting and will seek a waiver. And a federal judge in New Jersey has temporarily barred Khalil's deportation. Khalil, a legal US resident, was detained by federal immigration agents on March 8 in the lobby of his university-owned apartment, the first arrest under President Donald Trump's promised crackdown on student

Columbia's $400 million move seen as watershed in Trump-era academic fight

Columbia University's concession on Friday to a roster of government demands as it sought to restore about $400 million in federal funding is being widely viewed as a watershed moment

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

Trump demands control at Columbia, alarming scholars and speech groups

The Trump administration brushed aside decades of precedent when it ordered Columbia University to oust the leadership of an academic department, a demand seen as a direct attack on academic freedom and a warning of what is to come for other colleges facing federal scrutiny. Federal officials told the university it must immediately place its Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies Department under "academic receivership for a minimum of five years". The demand was among several described as conditions for receiving federal funding, including USD 400 million already pulled over allegations of antisemitism. Across academia, it was seen as a stunning intrusion. "It is an escalation of a kind that is unheard of," said Joan Scott, a historian and member of the academic freedom committee of the American Association of University Professors. "Even during the McCarthy period in the United States, this was not done." President Donald Trump has been threatening to withhold federal .

Palestinian activist student detained by officials at Columbia University

ICE had orders from the State Department to revoke Mahmoud Khalil's student visa

Trump admin cancels $400 mn in grants, contracts with Columbia University

The Trump administration said Friday that it's pulling $400 million from Columbia University, cancelling grants and contracts because of what the government describes as the Ivy League school's failure to squelch antisemitism on campus. The notice came five days after federal agencies announced they were considering orders to stop work on $51 million in contracts with the New York City university and reviewing its eligibility for over $5 billion in federal grants going forward. And it came after Columbia set up a new disciplinary committee and ramped up its own investigations into students critical of Israel, alarming free speech advocates. But Columbia's efforts evidently didn't go far enough for the federal government. Universities must comply with all federal antidiscrimination laws if they are going to receive federal funding. For too long, Columbia has abandoned that obligation to Jewish students studying on its campus, Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement ...

US halts sanctions on Colombia after it agrees to 'all terms' of Trump

Trump had imposed a 25 per cent import tariff on Colombia after the country refused to accept two deportation flights from the United States seeking 'dignified treatment' of its nationals

Columbia university President Shafik resigns after months of campus tumult

She will be replaced on an interim basis by Katrina Armstrong, chief executive officer of Columbia University Irving Medical Center

Severe storms kill 3 as tornadoes tear through central, southeastern US

Severe storms tore through the central and southeast U.S. late Tuesday and Wednesday, spawning damaging tornadoes, producing massive hail, and killing two people in Tennessee and one person in North Carolina. A storm that rumbled across northeastern Tennessee brought high winds that knocked down powerlines and trees. Claiborne County Sheriff Bob Brooks said a 22-year-old man was in a car struck by one of the trees. Wednesday afternoon, a tornado emergency the weather service's highest alert level was issued for an area south of Nashville including the towns of Spring Hill, Chapel Hill and Eagleville. The National Weather Service had previously reported a likely tornado on the ground in nearby Columbia, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) south of Nashville. People in Columbia were injured and homes were damaged, according to Lynn Thompson, assistant director of Maury County 911. Thompson told The Associated Press that he could not provide any further details: We're getting overloaded .

Columbia University cancels commencement ceremony amid ongoing protests

Columbia University is cancelling its large university-wide commencement ceremony amid ongoing pro-Palestinian protests but will hold smaller school-based ceremonies this week and next, the university announced Monday. Based on feedback from our students, we have decided to focus attention on our Class Days and school-level graduation ceremonies, where students are honoured individually alongside their peers, and to forego the university-wide ceremony that is scheduled for May 15, Columbia officials said in a statement. The protests stem from the conflict that started Oct 7 when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking roughly 250 hostages. Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel launched an offensive in Gaza that has killed more than 34,500 Palestinians, about two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory. Israeli strikes have devastated the enclave and displaced most of its ...

Trump downplays Capitol attack by comparing it to students' protest

Donald Trump on Tuesday lamented the possibility that Columbia University's pro-Palestinian protesters could be treated more leniently than the rioters who stormed the US Capitol in January 2021, marking the second time in a week the former president has invoked the ongoing campus protests to downplay past examples of right-wing violence. Speaking in the hallway outside a Manhattan courtroom where his criminal hush money trial is taking place, Trump questioned whether student demonstrators who seized and barricaded a campus building early Tuesday, some of them vandalising it in the process, would be treated the same way as his supporters who attacked the Capitol on January 6 to stop certification of the presidential results. I think I can give you the answer right now, he said. And that's why people have lost faith in our court system. Trump's remarks demonstrate anew how he and the Republican Party have tried to minimise the deadliest assault on the seat of American power in over 2

Judge warns Donald Trump of jail time if ex-Prez violates gag order

Donald Trump on Wednesday will use a one-day break from his hush money trial to rally voters in the battleground states of Wisconsin and Michigan, a day after he was held in contempt of court and threatened with jail time for violating a gag order. His remarks will be closely watched after he received a USD 9,000 fine for making public statements about people connected to the case. In imposing the fine for posts on Trump's Truth Social account and campaign website, Judge Juan M. Merchan said that if Trump continued to violate his orders, he will impose an incarceratory punishment. The former president is trying to achieve a balancing act unprecedented in American history by running for a second term as the presumptive Republican nominee while also fighting felony charges in New York. Trump frequently goes after Merchan, prosecutors and potential witnesses at his rallies and on social media, attack lines that play well with his supporters but that have potentially put him in legal ...

Police clear 30-40 protesters from Columbia University's Hamiltion Hall

Police cleared 30 to 40 people from inside Columbia University's Hamilton Hall late Tuesday after pro-Palestinian protesters occupied the administration building in New York earlier in the day. NYPD officers acted after the school's president said there was no other way to ensure safety and restore order on campus and sought help from the department. The occupied building had expanded the demonstrators' reach from an encampment elsewhere on the Ivy League school's grounds. Law enforcement will be there through May 17, the end of the university's commencement events. Columbia's protests began earlier this month and kicked off demonstrations that now span from California to Massachusetts. As May commencement ceremonies near, administrators face added pressure to clear protesters. Hundreds of police officers swept into Columbia University on Tuesday night to end the pro-Palestinian occupation of an administration building and sweep away a protest encampment, acting after the school's

Pro-Palestinian protesters arrested after Columbia University calls police

Officers took protesters into custody late Tuesday after Columbia University called in police to end the pro-Palestinian occupation on the New York campus. The scene unfolded shortly after 9 p.m. as police, wearing helmets and carrying zip ties and riot shields, massed at the Ivy League university's entrance. Officers breached Hamilton Hall, an administration building on campus, to clear out the structure. The demonstrators had occupied Hamilton Hall more than 12 hours earlier, spreading their reach from an encampment elsewhere on the grounds that's been there for nearly two weeks. Shortly before officers entered the campus, the New York Police Department received a notice from Columbia authorising officers to take action, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. The official was not authorised to discuss details of the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The NYPD's move came hours after the department's brass said officers wouldn't enter Columbia's ..

Columbia University vows to expel protestors as demonstrations rise in US

Columbia University vowed to expel protesters who occupied a building on the New York college's grounds Tuesday as universities nationwide grapple with intensifying campus demonstrations against the Israel-Hamas war. More than 1,000 protesters have been arrested on campuses in states including Texas, Utah, Virginia, North Carolina, New Mexico, Connecticut and New Jersey in recent days, some after violent clashes with police in riot gear. The White House condemned the standoffs at Columbia and California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, where protesters had occupied two buildings until officers with batons intervened overnight and arrested 25 people. Officials estimated the northern California campus' total damage to be upwards of USD 1 million. President Joe Biden believes students occupying an academic building is absolutely the wrong approach, and not an example of peaceful protest, said National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby. New York City Mayor Eric Adams clai

Columbia University students occupy building as campus protests continue

The New York Police Department is on standby near Columbia's campus, with officers ready to respond if called upon by university officials

Student protest against Gaza war: What is happening in colleges across US

Officials are trying to resolve the protests as the academic year winds down, but students have dug in at several high-profile universities

Harvard, Columbia say no to students demanding to sell Israel investments

"We're willing to risk suspension, expulsion and arrest, and I think that that will put pressure," said Malak Afaneh, a law student at University of California, Berkeley, and a protest organizer

Columbia University extends talks with Gaza war protesters for 48 hours

Columbia University averted another confrontation between students and police early Wednesday, but the situation remained tense with campus officials saying it would continue talks with pro-Palestinian protesters for another 48 hours. University President Minouche Shafik had set a midnight deadline to reach an agreement on clearing an encampment of protesters on campus but the school extended negotiations, saying it was making important progress". Student protesters had committed to dismantling and removing a significant number of tents, the New York Ivy League university said in a statement. On Wednesday morning, the encampment appeared calm and a little smaller than the previous day. Standoffs also persisted at other universities across the country, including California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, where protesters this week used furniture, tents, chains and zip ties to block a building's entrance and barricade themselves inside. And new student encampments continued t