Dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrators flooded into the main library on Columbia University’s campus on Wednesday afternoon and occupied part of the building, in an attempt to rekindle the protest movement that swept campus last spring. The protesters, wearing masks and kaffiyehs, hung banners in the soaring main room of Butler Library’s second floor, renaming the … Read more
Taking a break from her work dismantling her own department, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon last week threatened roughly $9 billion of grants and contracts with Harvard because of “the school’s failure to protect students on campus from antisemitic discrimination.” As shocking as that threat was, it wasn’t entirely a surprise: Since the Justice Department … Read more
Columbia University agreed on Friday to overhaul its protest policies, security practices and Middle Eastern studies department in a remarkable concession to the Trump administration, which has refused to consider restoring $400 million in federal funds without major changes. The agreement, which stunned and dismayed many members of the faculty, could signal a new stage … Read more
As conservatives fought against cancel culture on college campuses, they developed a particular fondness for the First Amendment. It was un-American, they argued, to punish someone for exercising their right to speak freely. Today, however, many of those same conservatives, now in power in state and federal government, are behind a growing crackdown on political … Read more
Columbia University is now the epicenter of the American culture war. The Trump administration is targeting a former Columbia student — and the university itself — as a test case for its new authoritarian regime. The story of Columbia isn’t simply about Mahmoud Khalil, a former graduate student in international affairs there who was one … Read more
The Trump administration invoked an obscure legal statute over the weekend in an attempt to deport a recent Columbia University graduate — and lawful permanent resident of the United States — who helped lead campus protests against Israel last year, people with knowledge of the action said on Monday. Mahmoud Khalil, 30, who graduated in … Read more
Federal immigration authorities on Saturday detained a well-known activist who played a major role in Columbia University’s pro-Palestinian student movement last year, his lawyer said on Sunday. The arrest of the activist, a legal permanent resident of the United States, was a significant escalation of President Trump’s crackdown on what he has called antisemitic campus … Read more