In times of crisis, the Stand Columbia Society looks to our core principles. Our first principle is to “support informed conversation.” Right now, there are too many moving pieces for us to contribute to the dialogue in a productive way, and we would not want to articulate any views that may turn out to be wrong or unhelpful.
Many alumni have written to us asking “how can I help?” We are sharing an e-mail from Columbia Trustee Jonathan Rosand CC ‘88, VP&S ‘94 addressing this question which you can find here. Dr. Rosand’s first recommendation is to read Interim President Armstrong’s email updates, which we list below:
- Standing Together for Columbia, March 15, 2025
- Update to Our Community Regarding DHS Activity Tonight, March 13, 2025
- Columbia’s Commitment to Our International Community, March 13, 2025
- Engaging with our Columbia Community, March 12, 2025
- The Principles Guiding Me, March 12, 2025
- Leading Through This Challenging Time, March 10, 2025
- Responding to Federal Action, March 7, 2025
In addition, below are a selection of news articles that you may want to read to understand the breadth of the issues facing Columbia and many peer institutions.
News Roundup
– March 15, 2025. The Spectator reported this week that Todd Blanche, Deputy Attorney General, has announced on Friday that the Department of Justice is going to investigate if Columbia’s “handling of earlier incidents violated civil rights laws and included terrorism crimes.” The search warrants that began Thursday evening are apparently part of a larger “ongoing investigation” into Columbia for “harboring and concealing illegal aliens on its campus.” As mentioned below, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has detained Mahmoud Khalil, SIPA ’24. His lawyer states that he is a “lawful permanent resident” per the Spectator. Additionally, Ranjani Srinivasan, a doctoral student at Columbia, lost her F-1 visa status in the first week of March for “supporting Hamas and terrorist activities.” Finally, Leqaa Kordia was also arrested by ICE. She was arrested in 2024 spring over her participation in Columbia protests, but this time she was arrested for “overstaying her student visa,” which was apparently curtailed in January 2022 for “lack of attendance.”
– March 15, 2025. The NYT’s editorial board argues that efforts by the Trump administration to cut funding for universities and restrict academic freedom resemble actions taken by authoritarian leaders to weaken independent institutions. It highlights budget cuts affecting scientific research, education programs, and international aid, as well as concerns over potential threats to free speech on campuses. Notably, the piece also acknowledges universities’ shortcomings: “Too many professors and university administrators acted in recent years as liberal ideologues rather than seekers of empirical truth. Academics have tried to silence debate on legitimate questions, including about Covid lockdowns, gender transition treatments and diversity, equity and inclusion. A Harvard University survey last year found that only 33 percent of graduating seniors felt comfortable expressing their opinions about controversial topics, with moderate and conservative students being the most worried about ostracization.” It concludes, “university leaders would help themselves, and the country, by emerging from their defensive crouches and making a forthright case for inquiry, research, science and knowledge.” We could not agree more.
– March 14, 2025 and March 15, 2025. The NYT published an article sharing that federal agents searched two Columbia dorm rooms days after the detention of Mahmoud Khalil. The next day, the NYT linked this dorm room search to Ranjani Srinivasan, a PhD candidate. The NYT reports that Srinivasan was briefly detained, then released, and then had charges dropped “when she was arrested at an entrance to Columbia’s campus the same day that pro-Palestinian protesters occupied Hamilton Hall.” Srinivasan has since “self-deported” with help of a “government app,” according to DHS.
– March 14, 2025. The WSJ reports on Columbia’s internal deliberations on how to respond to the Trump administration’s demands. With a deadline approaching, the university’s leadership, including an interim president and a “divided board”, is weighing its options amid ongoing faculty disagreements. Columbia has previously taken steps such as restricting protests, expelling students involved in demonstrations, and closing the campus to outsiders. Professor of Law Joshua Mitts, who is in touch with board members, stated “The board is taking this very seriously, and it is my expectation and understanding that there will be real action that is taken here.” Meanwhile Professor of Classics Joseph Howley articulated a view that “rampant, pervasive antisemitism” is a “false Republican pretext”, and as a result, the board needs to “needs to think outside the box.”
– March 14, 2025. NPR reported on the Trump administration’s new demands, elaborating that Columbia will also be expected to examine student organizations that could be “operating as constituent members of, or providing support for, unrecognized groups engaged in violations of University policy” and hold them to account if necessary. The president of J Street, a pro-Israel advocacy group from DC, Jeremy Ben-Ami, referred to the Trump administration’s focus on higher education as “an all-out assault on the norms of our democracy and against the very existence of critical institutions, programs and services across all sectors of our society.” He essentially accuses the administration of weaponizing the notion of antisemitism and harnessing it for their own agenda.
– March 10-12, 2024. The NYT reported details of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia alum and pro-Palestinian protester. Khalil is contributed significantly to the pro-Palestine movement at Columbia. He has been deemed a national security threat by the Trump administration. He has apparently not been accused of any crimes, but has been accused of “participating in antisemitic activities.” Under the law, the Secretary of State has broad discretion to revoke visas and green cards if he has reasonable grounds to believe the person poses “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.” Khalil currently being detained in a Louisiana detention center. Khalil is a Syrian-born Algerian citizen of Palestinian descent.
– March 13, 2025. The Free Press broke a story this week that the Trump administration has laid forth a set of demands that must be met should Columbia wish to enjoy its “continued financial relationship” with the federal government. The article is quite explicitly titled “Trump Administration Tells Columbia How to Get Its $400M Back.” The administration wrote a letter on Thursday to President Katrina Armstrong laying out the policies and conditions necessary for future funding. These include the abolition of the University Judicial Board, a ban on mask wearing on campus, and giving the “full law enforcement authority, including arrest and removal of agitators” to public safety officers. The stipulations must be met by March 20 if Columbia wishes to enter into “formal negotiations” with the administration.
– March 13, 2025. The NYT reports that Johns Hopkins University announced plans to cut over 2,000 jobs due to an $800 million reduction in federal funding, primarily from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The cuts will affect 247 domestic employees and nearly 2,000 positions internationally, impacting programs at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, the medical school, and affiliated nonprofit Jhpiego. The reductions are part of broader funding cuts by the Trump administration, which is restructuring USAID and reviewing federal research grants. Johns Hopkins, which relies heavily on federal funding for research and global health initiatives, stated that the layoffs will affect projects related to disease prevention, maternal health, and clean water access.
– March 12, 2025. The NYT reports Yale Law School has placed Helyeh Doutaghi, a deputy director of its Law and Political Economy Project, on administrative leave following allegations that she is linked to Samidoun, a group the U.S. government has designated as supporting terrorism. The decision came shortly after an artificial intelligence-powered news site published a report citing Doutaghi’s past participation in Samidoun-sponsored events. Yale officials stated that the suspension is based on concerns about potential violations of U.S. sanctions and that an investigation is underway. Doutaghi denies any wrongdoing, asserting that she is a scholar and not a member of any organization that violates U.S. law. Her lawyer has challenged the credibility of the news report and is seeking to have her reinstated.
– March 11, 2025. The WSJ weighed in with a piece on faculty tensions at Columbia, which are apparently running high. Broadly speaking, the humanities professors are at odds with the more quantitative professors over how the protests and their participants should be handled. Furthermore, Trump’s press secretary Leavitt shared that, “Columbia University has been given the names of other individuals who have engaged in pro-Hamas activity, and they are refusing to help DHS identify those individuals on campus.” Apparently, Trump won’t “tolerate that and we expect all America’s colleges and universities to comply with this administration’s policy.” However, there were some efforts to get ahead of the game. In February, before Trump’s explicit campaign to “reshape elite colleges,” a handful of faculty members from Columbia’s medical, business, and engineering schools and some deans and alumni, convened with President Armstrong, asking her to preempt Trump’s game plan by setting up rules and policies to deal with protesters and masks.