“All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests,” said President Donald Trump in a Tuesday morning Truth Social post.
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This statement appears to be related to recent announcements from the U.S. Department of Education, now led by Secretary Lina McMahon. On Monday, the department issued a press release that said it would conduct a “comprehensive review of Columbia University’s federal contracts and grants in light of ongoing investigations for potential violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.”
With the announcement, Columbia, located in New York City, N.Y., became the “first target,” in the Trump administration’s “campaign to cut federal money to colleges accused of tolerating antisemitism amid the Israel-Hamas war,” Audacy station WCCO News Talk in Minnesota reported. In February, the department investigations into Columbia and four other universities: Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.; Portland State University in Portland, Ore.; The University of California, Berkeley, in California and The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
“Too many universities have tolerated widespread antisemitic harassment and the illegal encampments that paralyzed campus life last year, driving Jewish life and religious expression underground,” said Craig Trainor, Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, per the Feb. 3 announcement. “The Biden Administration’s toothless resolution agreements did shamefully little to hold those institutions accountable.”
Deborah Lipstadt, who was the special envoy to fight antisemitism abroad under President Joe Biden, declined to teach at Columbia after because of “anti-Israel protesters who broke regulations and harassed other students,” according to an article published Tuesday by The New York Times. She said the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel and the warfare that followed also came with “a tsunami of antisemitism.”
In response to the Monday announcement about a review at Columbia, the college said it is “fully committed to combatting antisemitism and all forms of discrimination, and we are resolute that calling for, promoting, or glorifying violence or terror has no place at our University.” Additionally, the school said it is looking “forward to ongoing work with the new federal administration to fight antisemitism.”
Last year, Republican lawmakers called for former Columbia president Minouche Shafik to resign amid protests supporting Palestinians at the campus that were related to the Israel-Hamas war. She eventually did, last August.
“This period has taken a considerable toll on my family, as it has for others in our community,” Shafik said in a statement. “Over the summer, I have been able to reflect and have decided that my moving on at this point would best enable Columbia to traverse the challenges ahead.”
However, CBS News reported just this week that tensions have remained high at Columbia since the pro-Palestinian demonstrators set up encampments on the university lawn last year. More recently, the outlet said demonstrations were held at Barnard College and City College in Manhattan.
“Protesters at Barnard staged a sit-in and injured a security guard on their way into the building, demanding the school drop the expulsions of two students accused in a bias incident,” CBS said.
At Columbia, more than $51 million in contracts are now up in the air, as well as $5 billion in federal grants, said WCCO.
“Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on on the crime, arrested. NO MASKS! Thank you for your attention to this matter,” added Trump in his Tuesday Truth Social post.
Shortly after the message went up, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) both issued lengthy responses:
“If a college runs afoul of anti-discrimination laws like Title VI or Title IX, the government may ultimately deny the institution federal funding by taking it to federal court, or via notice to Congress and an administrative hearing. It is not simply a discretionary decision that the president can make,” said FIRE. “President Trump also lacks the authority to expel individual students, who are entitled to due process on public college campuses and, almost universally, on private campuses as well.”
“It is disturbing to see the White House threatening freedom of speech and academic freedom on U.S. college campuses so blatantly. We stand in solidarity with university leaders in their commitment to free speech, open debate, and peaceful dissent on campus,” said Cecillia Wang, legal director of the ACLU and co-author of the letter. “Trump’s latest coercion campaign, attempting to turn university administrators against their own students and faculty, harkens back to the McCarthy era and is at odds with American constitutional values and the basic mission of universities.”
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