Issue #063: After 250 Years, a 1775 King’s College Diploma Finally Comes Home
The Stand Columbia Society is pleased to report some happy news. Last week, a King’s College Bachelor of Arts diploma issued in 1775 to John William Livingston unexpectedly showed up on the market. A small group of donors we are in contact with quickly raised the funds in a single afternoon to purchase it and…
Keep readingIssue #062: A Note from the Stand Columbia Society
Three hundred and sixty-three days ago, just short of a year, we sent out the first issue of the Stand Columbia Society’s weekly newsletters. We did so with a simple conviction: that institutions matter, that history matters, and that accountability to both is not optional. The chaos then engulfing Columbia—and what we suspected was yet…
Keep readingIssue #061: The Conscience of Columbia College: A Conversation with Dean Emeritus Robert E. Pollack, CC ‘61
TL;DR This week, the Stand Columbia Society is honored to share a wide-ranging and deeply personal conversation with our dear friend Dean Emeritus Robert E. Pollack, CC ‘61, longtime professor of biology, and one of Columbia’s most quietly formative moral voices of the last half-century. In this interview, Pollack reflects on what it meant to…
Keep readingIssue #060: What it Takes to be Columbia’s President: A Conversation with Professor Emeritus Robert A. McCaughey
TL;DR Two weeks ago, Columbia announced its fully-constituted presidential search committee. The committee’s composition is heartening: small enough to work, broad enough to listen, and representative of the diversity of viewpoints in our community. And as its members continue their work, we thought there might be quiet value in returning to first principles. The Stand…
Keep readingIssue #059: Columbia University is Following Through on its Commitments
TL;DR This week’s piece will be boring and legal, but very important. After the settlement with the federal government, we wanted to track Columbia’s progress to see if it was making changes. We are glad to report that it is, with revisions to the University Statutes. A quick reminder on power and authority: the highest…
Keep readingIssue #058: We Have a Deal
TL;DR Today, Columbia University and the federal government announced a deal. You can read details of it here. 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. It delivered much of what the Stand Columbia…
Keep readingIssue #057: Parsing the Shipman Statement on Combatting Antisemitism
TL;DR The Stand Columbia Society generally analyzes facts, not rumors. In the past few weeks, many media outlets have commented on a “deal” between Columbia and the Trump administration, but the fact remains that no deal has been announced. However, last week’s statement by Acting President Claire Shipman is something real. But like with many…
Keep readingIssue #056: How the One Big Beautiful Bill Reshapes Columbia’s Financial Model
TL;DR A little over a week ago, President Trump signed the One, Big, Beautiful Bill (“OBBB”) into law. You can read the full legislation here. To be clear: the Stand Columbia Society is politically neutral. The Stand Columbia Society therefore focuses its discussion on the OBBB insofar as its impacts Columbia. Today’s issue will break…
Keep readingIssue #055: We Modeled the Breakup of Columbia University. It Went About How You’d Expect.
TL;DR Own goal week It’s been a pretty bad week for Columbia. In soccer parlance, Columbia made a series of “own goals” this week. First, while the University is in delicate negotiations with the government, it announced the appointment of Professor Farah Jasmine Griffin to the rank of University Professor—its highest academic honor. No one…
Keep readingIssue #054: What If There Is No Deal?
TL;DR Picture this: after a change of government that was decidedly hostile to their enterprise, Columbia’s acting president leads a small group of faculty to flee New York and set up a university-in-exile—in Canada. Actually, that really happened. In 1783, during the British evacuation of New York, when Charles Inglis—then both rector of Trinity Church…
Keep readingIssue #053: Litigation as Mirage: Implications of the Dismissal of the AAUP/AFT Lawsuit
ICYMI: Trump posted on his social media (and it was later reported in the New York Times) that it was “very possible that a Deal will be announced over the next week or so” with Harvard University (which has acted “extremely appropriately”), although others briefed on the discussions assessed it as “highly unlikely.” We think…
Keep readingIssue #052: The Quiet Shift Reshaping Columbia
ICYMI: Acting President Claire Shipman issued a public statement which you can read here and watch here. It acknowledged the time constraints we are under before permanent damage is done to our research enterprise, our red lines on academic freedom and institutional autonomy, the financial and regulatory realities facing us, the surge of antisemitic incidents…
Keep readingIssue #051: America Cannot Afford to Lose Our Medical Research Infrastructure: A Conversation with Professor W. Ian Lipkin
TL;DR ICYMI: We are starting to see a welcome change in how Columbia’s official communications networks are approaching its broader messaging efforts. Last week, the official Columbia Alumni Association launched the Take Action initiative. It asks the broader community to “inspire and inform” which we have done and will continue to do in the spirit…
Keep readingIssue #050: Columbia’s Title VI Violation Finding Triggers Accreditor Notification—But Not an Immediate Crisis
Earlier today, the U.S. Department of Education issued a press release stating that it had formally notified Columbia University’s accreditor (the Middle States Commission on Higher Education) that the Department’s Office for Civil Rights has found Columbia in violation of Title VI. (For reference, here is our issue explaining accreditation.) Here’s what this does and…
Keep readingIssue #049: Columbia’s Student Body is 39% International. That Creates Risks and Opportunities.
On May 22, the Trump administration abruptly revoked Harvard’s SEVP (Student and Exchange Visitor Program) eligibility, blocking its ability to enroll international students. It’s worth saying this upfront: this was the wrong move and is counter to American interests. There are smarter ways to screen out bad actors but wholesale stopping enrollment or targeting specific…
Keep readingIssue #048: 76% of Columbia’s $1.5B of Net Tuition Revenue Depends on the Federal Government. We Cannot Become Hillsdale-on-the-Hudson.
There were three potentially seismic developments this week that further illustrate the stakes that universities like ours face. The first is already in effect, albeit was just blocked by a federal court. The second has wide-ranging potential implications. And the third is a tragic foreshadowing of what could yet come. Note: Last evening, the Department…
Keep readingIssue #047: Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights Finds Columbia in Violation of Title VI
Earlier this evening, the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights announced a formal finding that Columbia University has violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. In plain terms, this means a federal agency has concluded that Columbia failed to meet its legal obligation to prevent discrimination as a condition of…
Keep readingIssue #046: Congratulations to the Class of 2025!
This coming Wednesday, May 21, 2025, over 16,000 graduands (the term for students who have completed their exams but have not yet received their degrees) will graduate from Columbia University in its 271st academic year. It’s a real moment of joy for the graduates and for the over 400,000 alumni waiting to welcome them. We…
Keep readingIssue #045: When the U.S. Government Cut Off All of Columbia’s Federal Funding… in 1971
Today, we’re going to look into a little-known and somewhat obscure episode in Columbia’s history that might provide some insight for today. But first things first. Butler 301 Occupation and its Aftershocks The Butler 301 (what we affectionately know as the Wien Reference Room) occupation of May 7, 2025 has concluded. Thanks to the extraordinary…
Keep readingIssue #044: Masked Protestors Invade Butler 301, are Swiftly Removed and Arrested, and Will Be Held Accountable
This afternoon, at 3:15 PM, approximately 100 masked protestors overwhelmed the Security desk at the front of Butler Library and stormed into Room 301, the Lawrence A. Wien Reference Room. They interrupted students studying for finals, jumped on tables, began banging on drums, chanting and shouting, and then vandalized the room. Columbia University Public Safety…
Keep readingIssue #043: Accreditation Was Boring—Until It Wasn’t
Shortly after the election, President Trump recorded a short video where he discussed accreditation as a “secret weapon.” Then he went quiet and people stopped paying attention. They shouldn’t have. Well, about 2 weeks ago, he signed an executive order titled “Reforming Accreditation to Strengthen Higher Education” that shook up accreditation. Why and how anyone…
Keep readingIssue #042: The Sunlight Report
Last evening, the Stand Columbia Society published The Sunlight Report: A Reappraisal of the Sundial Report—a comprehensive, evidence-based evaluation written by members of the Columbia community. Offered as a service to the community, the report responds to the Sundial Report, which was prepared anonymously and issued by the Chair of the Executive Committee of the…
Keep readingIssue #041: The University Senate’s Moment of Reckoning
ICYMI: One of the Stand Columbia Society’s co-founders recently spoke at the American Enterprise Institute alongside a co-founder of Harvard’s 1636 Forum. The discussion touched on topics including higher education’s relationship with the federal government, academic self-censorship, shared governance, and of course, university balance sheets. You can watch the discussion here. ICYMI Part 2: We…
Keep readingIssue #040: Harvard’s High-Stakes Standoff: Weather the Storm, Protect the Mission
TL;DR As we prepared this issue, we received a late-breaking notification from Acting President Claire Shipman on Friday afternoon foreshadowing reforms to the University Senate. This will require time to digest and think about, and we will have some reactions next week. This week, we’ll talk about one of our peer institutions, Harvard University, that…
Keep readingIssue #039: The Road to Renewal: A Conversation with Professor Emeritus Robert A. McCaughey
This week, the Stand Columbia Society is pleased to share an interview with Professor Emeritus of History Robert A. McCaughey, one of our institution’s most revered “keepers of the flame”. For more than five decades, Professor McCaughey has been both a witness to and chronicler of Columbia University’s evolving identity. We are thrilled to host…
Keep readingIssue #038: Why Not All Universities Can Engage in Resistance Performance Art: A Tale of Financial Realities
Recently, we wrote about why Columbia’s endowment can’t simply be weaponized as a war chest to “fight Trump”, in reaction to some of the feel-good-but-financially-illiterate calls out there to do so. Mixed messages from Ivy League schools have emerged following recent events. The Trump administration froze select contracts or grants at Princeton and Harvard, prompting…
Keep readingIssue #037: No, the Endowment Cannot Be Used to “Fight Trump”
Recently, a new narrative has begun making its way around the higher education commentariat: that Columbia University should “use its $15 billion endowment to fight Trump.” It’s a tempting, feel-good slogan, but here’s the problem: this argument is financially illiterate, institutionally reckless, and strategically suicidal. Let’s put it in perspective: the federal government spends Columbia’s…
Keep readingIssue #036: Thank You Katrina Armstrong and Claire Shipman
Earlier this evening, Columbia University shared two major announcements: the return of Dr. Katrina Armstrong to her prior role as Chief Executive Officer of the Columbia University Irving Medical Center, as Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, and Dean of the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons; and of the appointment of Claire Shipman,…
Keep readingIssue #035: A Fragile First Step and the Long Road to Real Reform
Last Friday, Columbia University announced a series of sweeping policy changes yesterday in response to the Trump administration’s demand letter and a threatened $400 million funding cut. You can—and should—review them yourself: Interim President Katrina Armstrong’s announcement, the summary of changes, and the official “fine print” itself. For the past several weeks, we’ve remained intentionally…
Keep readingIssue #034: Keep Calm and Carry On (Plus a Trustee’s Message to Alumni)
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…
Keep readingIssue #033: This Is Serious
The major development this week is the federal government’s decision to cut $400 million in grants (supposedly they were going to cut $3 billion at first). We do not have additional insights to offer at this moment. However, three key points stand out: (1) the announcement describes this as a “freeze” rather than something more…
Keep readingIssue #032: Federal Government Weighs Cutting Billions of Columbia’s Funding
Earlier tonight, the U.S. Department of Education, Department of Health and Human Services, and General Services Administration issued a press release that places Columbia University at existential risk. According to the statement, due to “Columbia’s ongoing inaction in the face of relentless harassment of Jewish students,” the federal government’s cross-agency antisemitism task force is now…
Keep readingIssue #031: The Eden Plan to “Destroy Columbia University”, Part I
We won’t dwell on the recent incidents at Barnard College—other sources have covered that farce thoroughly. However, we strongly disagree with the Barnard administration’s decision to promise no disciplinary action for dispersal. We note that this leniency (solely for “presence in the building”) leaves open the possibility that those responsible for vandalizing walls and assaulting…
Keep readingIssue #030: The Great DEI Crackdown: What’s Next for Columbia and American Universities
This past week, the Trump administration dropped a “Dear Colleague Letter” that launched a broadside against race-based preferencing and the entire diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) infrastructure in American higher education. It explicitly threatened to cut off funding to any university that uses “race in decisions pertaining to admissions, hiring, promotion, compensation, financial aid, scholarships,…
Keep readingIssue #029: The Hidden Economics of Government Funding of Universities (A Long and Nerdy Analysis)
Last week, we published a widely read and widely shared analysis on how NIH funding cuts could impact Columbia and the broader academic landscape. The response was overwhelming—we received a flood of questions, critiques, and requests for deeper context on research funding in higher education. This week, we’re diving into five of the most pressing…
Keep readingIssue #028: Federal Funding Cuts Shake Higher Education and Could Cost Columbia Over $200 Million
Three months ago, we published a detailed analysis looking at the financial risks Columbia University could face under a Trump administration. Our analysis suggested up to $250 million in “probable” short-term financial exposure, with a focus on Columbia’s $1.3 billion in government grants. While our report sparked widespread discussion, it also drew its share of…
Keep readingIssue #027: Trump’s Second Week Brings DEI Crackdowns, Deportation Threats, and (Yet More) Disruptions on Campus
The hurricane of Trump executive orders last week did not stop. In fact, the Trump administration seems intent on further throwing down gauntlets left and right. This week, the edicts continued. The attempted funding freeze On Monday, January 27, 2025, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) circulated an internal memo that mandated every federal…
Keep readingIssue #026: Key Developments From The First Six Days of the Trump Administration
It has been an incredibly eventful week with new developments coming out of Washington and New York. We at the Stand Columbia Society think matters are evolving too quickly for any sort of credible and insightful analysis. So instead, we will attempt to highlight five key developments that everyone who loves Columbia should know, and…
Keep readingIssue #025: The MLA’s Surprising Stance on BDS and Its Implications for Academia
Note: We are trying out an experiment. Our friends at the 1636 Forum (Harvard) noticed that more readers engaged with their content if it was sent on a Saturday afternoon versus a Friday evening. We will test this for a few weeks before making a permanent decision. Last week, something unusual happened in the world…
Keep readingIssue #024: Why Columbia’s Protestors Likely Won’t Face Consequences for the Occupation of and Damage to Hamilton Hall
In a pivotal development, the University Judicial Board (UJB) has finally come to life. The UJB is a panel of faculty, students, and administrators that is completely separate from and independent of Columbia’s administration, whose members are appointed by the University Senate’s Executive Committee. This body, responsible for adjudicating protest-related discipline at Columbia University, has…
Keep readingIssue #023: Columbia Faculty Survey on Academic Freedom (They’re For It) and Mandatory DEI Statements (They’re Against It)
Recent findings from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) have sparked important discussions about academic freedom in higher education. A survey titled “Silence in the Classroom” gathered insights from over 6,200 faculty members across 55 U.S. colleges and universities, including 130 from Columbia. Before diving into the findings, it’s worth clarifying that the…
Keep readingIssue #022: ‘Twas the Season at Columbia: Holiday Cheer, History, and Hope
ICYMI: The House of Representatives released a 43-page Staff Report on Antisemitism. This report includes recommendations (starting on page 15, and our explainer on discipline is also cited as a source) for universities, including enforcing rules, empowering public safety, upholding antidiscrimination policies, increasing viewpoint diversity, and publishing aggregate statistics on disciplinary actions—recommendations which the Stand…
Keep readingIssue #021: Vanderbilt University: A Case Study for Columbia Renewed
A few weeks ago, Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier sat down to be interviewed for the “Call Me Back” podcast. It was released under the provocative title “How Vanderbilt University is Getting it Right”, and we think it’s well worth listening to in its entirety. The discussion traversed topics from campus culture to the vital role…
Keep readingIssue #020: The Cult Dynamics of Campus Protests: A Perfect Storm
ICYMI: We just published our explainer on Title VI, the portion of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that governs a significant portion of Columbia’s billions of dollars of financial assistance from the Federal government. Last year, during Columbia’s new student orientation, a first-year student recounted an experience that sheds light on the dynamics shaping…
Keep readingIssue #019: How Leadership Transformed Columbia from Worst to First: A Conversation with Football Head Coach Jon Poppe
We hope all of our stateside readers had a very Happy Thanksgiving. The Stand Columbia Society recently had a conversation with Patricia & Shepard Alexander Head Coach of Football Jon Poppe, fresh off the heels of the Columbia Lions’ first championship season since 1961. The following remarks have been edited for length and clarity. 1.…
Keep readingIssue #018: WE WIN!
The Columbia Lions are Ivy League Champions. Yes, you read that right. For the first time in 63 years—and only the second time in history—our football team claimed the title after a spectacular 7-3 overall (5-2 conference) season. It wasn’t easy. Beating Cornell was just step one. Yale also had to defeat Harvard to create…
Keep readingIssue #017: Columbia’s (Responsible) Faculty: Please Introduce Yourselves
On April 30, the NYPD was summoned to Columbia’s campus. The NYPD forcibly entered Hamilton Hall, which was occupied by student protestors and outside agitators. During the occupation, the protestors held a Columbia employee hostage. After clearing and securing Hamilton, dozens of students were arrested. The backlash was swift, Commencement was disrupted, and by August,…
Keep readingIssue #016: The Florida Plan: A Potential Trump Administration Playbook for Higher Education
These are uncertain days for higher education. Last week we wrote in a special edition that up to $3.5 billion (or 55% of the University’s operating budget) could be exposed to stroke-of-pen risk in a Trump administration. Then the New York Times ran an article entitled “Colleges Wonder if They Will Be ‘the Enemy’ Under…
Keep readingIssue #015: We Calculated Columbia’s Institutional Risk Exposure Due to the Election. It’s $3.5 Billion Per Year.
TL;DR We purposely did not weigh in on the election last week, while we gathered information and tried to put together a thoughtful fact-based perspective. As outsiders, it is not our place to tell our faculty, administration, and Trustees what to do. We lack reliable information and an inside track on the complex trade-offs Columbia’s…
Keep readingIssue #014: Fault Lines Within the Columbia Faculty
There have been some fireworks this week in the normally sleepy world of University governance. To recap: “Good governance” faculty sent a petition requesting Senate governance reforms, in particular that the current Executive Committee Chair respect term limits (which she herself supported putting in place) and not attempt to run for a fourth term. Another…
Keep readingIssue #013: We’ve read the House Committee’s report (and it’s bad…)
A community of Columbia faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends focused on excellence in teaching, learning, and research. Sign up for our newsletter. This week, the US House Committee on Education & the Workforce dropped their 325-page “Antisemitism on College Campuses Exposed” report. Some caveats: First, we don’t have any firsthand knowledge of any of…
Keep readingIssue #012: Happy 270th Birthday, Columbia!!
A community of Columbia faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends focused on excellence in teaching, learning, and research. Sign up for our newsletter. ICYMI: We’ve published an “explainer” that attempts to shed light on Columbia’s complex disciplinary processes (note: this is a very comprehensive explanation – 15 pages in total). Next Thursday, October 31, 2024,…
Keep readingIssue #011: The Aftershocks Are Here
A community of Columbia faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends focused on excellence in teaching, learning, and research. Sign up for our newsletter. Last week, we wrote about the good, the bad, and the ugly of October 7, 2024 on Columbia’s campus. The fallout is here. Let’s break down four key aftershocks. First, this has…
Keep readingIssue #010: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly: A Sober Assessment of October 7, 2024 on Columbia’s Campus
A community of Columbia faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends focused on excellence in teaching, learning, and research. Sign up for our newsletter. October 7, 2024 came and went. On balance, while the good outweighed the bad, it exposed serious fault lines that Columbia can no longer ignore. Here’s what went down. The good… The…
Keep readingIssue #009: Lessons from Stanford’s New President
A community of Columbia faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends focused on excellence in teaching, learning, and research. Sign up for our newsletter. These are trying times for all universities. Beyond the political crisis that’s enveloped many elite universities, there’s a crisis in confidence in the value of a $90,000+ per year education. When a…
Keep readingIssue #008: A Treasure Trove of Columbiana
A community of Columbia faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends focused on excellence in teaching, learning, and research. Sign up for our newsletter. ICYMI: We were excited to see that Columbia featured an initiative by Dr. Sue Mendelsohn and Dr. Aaron Ritzenberg, both senior lecturers in the Department of English and Comparative Literature, to encourage…
Keep readingIssue #007 (Breaking News): Columbia’s New Anti-Discrimination and Discriminatory Harassment Policy
A community of Columbia faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends focused on excellence in teaching, learning, and research. Sign up for our newsletter. Today, Columbia published its new Anti-Discrimination and Discriminatory Harassment (Title VI) Policy. You can find it here. We’ll be publishing an explainer in due course on what Title VI is and why…
Keep readingIssue #006: The NYPD Shouldn’t Be On Campus. We Can Change That.
A community of Columbia faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends focused on excellence in teaching, learning, and research. Sign up for our newsletter. ICYMI: Shortly after the Stand Columbia Society asked for Columbia’s administration to adopt a form of institutional neutrality or restraint, and seven months after the University Senate unanimously passed a resolution calling…
Keep readingIssue #005: A Columbia Education Should Stretch Your Mind, Not Lock You In an Echo Chamber
A community of Columbia faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends focused on excellence in teaching, learning, and research. Sign up for our newsletter. ICYMI: Shortly after Stand Columbia argued for institutional neutrality and for clearer guidelines to its Rules, Barnard College made both official. We hope Columbia will follow shortly. Big Idea To build civil…
Keep readingIssue #004: Institutional Neutrality: What It Is and Why Columbia Should Implement It
This week, the Columbia Task Force on Antisemitism released a crucial report, and as the WSJ editorial board noted, it marks a pivotal moment for Columbia’s leadership. With campus protests resuming, including the recent defacing of Alma Mater, the University’s response will show whether it can effectively address these challenges. While President Armstrong’s recent video…
Keep readingIssue #003: Why Can’t Columbia Make Tough Decisions?
A community of Columbia faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends focused on excellence in teaching, learning, and research. Sign up for our newsletter. ICYMI: We’ve been posting “explainers” about Columbia University and encourage you to read them. These include pieces on faculties and schools, the endowment, the University Statutes, and the University Senate. (The last…
Keep readingIssue #002: Guiding You Through Today’s Changes to Columbia’s Rules of University Conduct
This week Columbia was broadsided by a fiery statement from the House Committee on Education & the Workforce, suggesting that the “vast majority [of the Hamilton occupiers] remain in good standing”, with this coverage from the New York Times and followed up with Congressional subpoenas. The House Committee’s report gained so much attention as many…
Keep readingIssue #001: Our Vision for a “Columbia Renewed”
“Columbia Renewed”: Where We Go From Here The 1968 riots and ensuing police bust at Columbia University were a traumatic experience that led to wide-ranging aftershocks: a ‘lost generation’ of alumni, talent flight, financial distress, and organizational retrenchment. It took 20 years–until 1988, under the presidency of Michael Sovern CC ’53, CLS ’55, until there…
Keep readingIssue #000: Welcome to the Stand Columbia Society
Dear fellow Columbian, This past year at Columbia University has been the most divisive in over half a century. Escalating protests, police action, tension from within our community (faculty, students, and alumni) and without (social media commentary, hostile politicians), defined a challenging campus mood. The sudden resignation of President Minouche Shafik days before the start…
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