Summary
The university whose treatment by the Trump administration is Kenneth S. Stern’s central recent-events example in his 2025 testimony: seemingly bullied into submission without due process, its agreement to administration demands — including signalling that government can dictate putting an academic department in receivership — disastrous for faculty governance and for Jewish students themselves (Written Testimony of Kenneth S. Stern, PDF p.10).
Details
- The threatened cuts will likely impact research on cancer and diabetes, delay cures and disrupt students’ work, including that of Jewish students (PDF p.10).
- Constitutional law scholars from left and right condemned the demands on Columbia in a statement Stern quotes in footnote 34: no agency or court had found Columbia violated Title VI, and nearly half a billion dollars in funds was withdrawn without such a finding (PDF p.11).
- Mahmoud Khalil, a green-card holder and former Columbia student, was arrested after allegedly distributing pro-Hamas propaganda; a Columbia journalism professor warned foreign students not to write about Ukraine, Gaza or protests (PDF p.10-11).
- Columbia’s Task Force on Antisemitism Report 2 is cited for harassment of anti-Zionist Jewish students as “kapos” or “traitors” (PDF p.6, footnote 21; PDF p.36, footnote 60).
Related pages
Written Testimony of Kenneth S. Stern, Mahmoud Khalil, Kenneth S. Stern, Academic freedom