Columbia University agreed to a list of demands set out by President Donald Trump in return for negotiations to revive $400 million in federal funds last month, citing “didn’t protect Jewish students from anti-Semitistic harassment.”
Among other concessions, the university agrees that it bans face masks and gives 36 campus police officers special authority to arrest students.
A new senior provost will also be established to oversee the Middle East, South Asia and African Research Centers and the Palestinian Research.
So what happened and what did Colombia agree to do?
Why did the US government demand Colombia?
Last year, schools were a huge hub amid a wave of campus protests that swept the US as Israel’s war with Gaza escalated. On April 30, a group of students, staff and alumni occupied Hamilton Hall, an academic building on Columbia’s campus, and was later forced to be cleared by the New York Police Department at the request of university leaders.
The Trump administration has taken a hard-pressed approach to those involved in last year’s demonstrations, pledging to deport students involved in the first week. Earlier this month, they cancelled federal funds in Colombia and issued a list of requests that the university must agree to before the funds recover.
This month, Colombian student Mahmoud Khalil, 29, played a key role in organizing pro-Palestinian protests, but was arrested by immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) agents from a university residence in upper Manhattan, New York.
“It is a privilege to be granted a visa to live and study in the United States. When defending violence and terrorism, your privilege should be revoked and you should not be in this country,” Homeland Security Secretary Christie Noem said in a news release on the arrest.
On March 10, US authorities sent letters to 60 academic institutions, including Colombia, informing them that they were investigating “anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination,” and warned of potential law enforcement measures if they “do not protect Jewish students.” The letter also threatened further funding cuts. In response, Columbia said it had expelled, suspended or revoked the extent of students involved in the occupation of Hamilton Hall.
As a deadline for Colombia approaching the remaining government demands on Friday night, the university sent a new memo to the US administration, saying it agreed to them as well. Critics say the move could fundamentally change academic freedom and the US’s right to free speech.
What did Colombia agree to do?
In a memo to the Trump administration Friday night, Columbia University listed new rules and policies, which are now applied to campus and have planned to reform the disciplinary process.
Face masks are prohibited, protesters are necessary to identify themselves, security guards with special authority to arrest students will be appointed, and departments offering courses in the Middle East will be reviewed and overseen by new senior provosts.
The Trump administration had requested that schools place research units in the Middle East, South Asia and Africa as “academic recipients” for five years. This is a step that university administrators can take to manage departments that they consider to be dysfunctional away from their faculty.
In the memo, the university states: “All of these steps are ongoing and are intended to further advance Colombia’s fundamental mission, aimed at providing a safe and thriving environment for research and education while maintaining a commitment to academic and institutional integrity.”
In preparation for the Friday deadline to meet government demands, US media reported that Colombian trustees had met closed doors for several days. Some board members are deeply concerned that “universities trade moral authority and academic independence for federal funds,” but according to the Wall Street Journal, schools have limited options.
Accepting the request does not guarantee the return of federal funds. The Trump administration has said meeting that demands is merely a “prerequisite for formal negotiations.”
A new letter to Colombia from Trump administrators lists the demands of “continuous fiscal relations” with the US government.
– Suck or kick students out for protests in Hamilton Hall
– “Rules of time, place and manners”
– No masks
– Address: “anti-Zionist” discrimination
– Reform your enrollment
– more pic.twitter.com/djcc31vq2q– Prem Thakker (@prem_thakker) March 14, 2025
How did activists and scholars react?
Critics say the government’s demands go far beyond traditional compliance or implementation policies, and are equivalent to their attempts to curb the pro-Palestinian voices.
Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of democracy in the Arab world (dawn), said these conditions amount to political control over the functions of the university, which they teach and who are allowed to speak.
She highlighted the dangers of such federal overreach, saying that Colombia’s compliance with these demands “sets awful precedents across the United States and covers academic freedom.”
“I have never seen such a forced attack on American civil society in the history of the United States, such as freedom and protection of our constitution,” Whitson told Al Jazeera.
She said the worst thing college can do right now is to “keep quiet and think they’ll never come next.” Following government demands “opens the door for identical actions to all other universities in the country,” she added.
She said the very future of academic discourse itself is at risk for the present.
“The central driving mission of these attacks is, first and foremost, silence not only speeches, but also study of Palestinian rights and history,” she said. “It’s about creating an environment where universities can only teach content that a particular administration thinks is acceptable.”
Al Shabaka’s US Policy Fellow: Palestinian Policy Network Tarik Kenny Shawa called the administration’s move “absolutely ridiculous” and added that the university is “effectively selling its legitimacy and independence as an academic institution.”
“For a government that is so devoted to reducing the federal influence on private matters of everything from universities to women’s bodies, interfering with issues of university behavior is a clear example of an authoritarian overreach,” Kenny Shawa told Al Jazeera.
He claimed that the Trump administration and its pro-Israel supporters are “losing discussions about Israel” on university campuses, relying on forcing them to shut down the discussions completely.
“There’s no doubt Trump is applying the template that his administration uses for those who oppose that far-right agenda,” he said. “However, it is important to emphasize that this is a deliberate targeting of people who defend Palestinian rights and criticize Israel.”
Professor Jonathan Zimmerman, a Columbia alumnus and now an education historian at the University of Pennsylvania, told Reuters it was “a sad day for the university.” He said: “Historically, there is no precedent for this. The government is using money as a pro-stop to reduce universities.”
Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of University Professors, said the move was “probably the biggest invasion of academic freedom, freedom of speech and institutional autonomy seen since the McCarthy era.”
Will students be deported?
The government certainly strives to do this, but faces legal challenges.
In recent weeks, reports of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents appearing on campus have destabilized many, and advocacy groups say Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest is part of a wider pattern of targeting protesters. Halil, a permanent resident of the United States and pregnant with an American wife, was placed in immigration detention first in New York and later in Louisiana. The Trump administration said he plans to strip him of his green card.
Halil has legal challenges and claims that his efforts to deport him violate the rights to free speech and legitimate procedures guaranteed under the US Constitution. This week, federal court rejected Trump’s attempt to dismiss the case.
“These are no doubt serious allegations and arguments that guarantee a careful review by the court. The fundamental constitutional principle that everyone in the United States has the right to demand a legitimate process of law is not less,” Judge Jesse Fleman wrote in his ruling.
Last week, second Columbia University student protester, Leqaa Kordia, was arrested and charged with overstaying an F-1 student visa. She was detained by an ice agent and detained for deportation. Another foreign student, India’s Ranjani Srinivasan, has revoked her student visa to participate in the “Activities to Support Hammas,” a misspelling of Palestinian armed group Hamas.
Earlier this week, government agents detained Badal Khan Suri, an Indian postdoctoral researcher for Muslim and Christian understanding at the Alwaleed bin Talal Centre in Georgetown. He is being detained in Louisiana for deportation to “spread Hamas propaganda and promote anti-Semitism” on social media, Tricia McLaughlin, deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), said Wednesday.
Khaled Elgindi, a visiting scholar in Georgetown, focusing on issues of Palestine and Israel, said enforcement efforts appear to be entering “a different territory in this case” and extending beyond the protests.
“It appears this person was targeted, not his behaviorism,” he said.
Legal efforts are underway to prevent universities from sharing information about their students with the government.
Earlier this week, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York granted the US Council of Islamic Relations (CAIR)’s request for a legal injunction prohibiting Columbia from sharing student information with federal agencies without a legitimate process. The ruling comes amid growing concern that universities could be pressured to hand over sensitive data from students, especially Muslim and Arab backgrounds.
