New Delhi: What began as a dispute over pro-Palestinian protests on the Columbia University campus has now escalated into a high-stakes battle over academic freedom, federal overreach and the future of higher education in the US.
After funding cuts last month, the Trump administration has launched a massive drive against dissent on campus amid threats of deportation over 2024 pro-Palestine protests. Despite backlash, the move has only turned out to be the “first of many”—in line with President Donald Trump’s warning.
The Trump administration last week delivered an ultimatum to Columbia University, warning that it will permanently cut federal funding unless the university agrees to significant changes, including relinquishing control of its international studies department.
The government also demanded a ban on masks, adoption of a new antisemitism definition, and dismantling of the university’s existing student disciplinary process, in a letter sent Thursday.
ThePrint looks at what is transpiring at Columbia University and the standoff between the federal government and the institution, which is viewed as a cornerstone of academic excellence in the US.
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Deductions and deportations
Trump and Republicans have repeatedly attacked Columbia University since it became a focal point for pro-Palestinian protests in 2023 and 2024. The protests, in response to the Israel-Hamas war, peaked after a contentious congressional hearing in April 2024.
Columbia’s then-president Minouche Shafik later authorised police to arrest student protesters, escalating tensions. This led to widespread arrests of protesters across the country, with over 3,000 detained between April and July.
Riding on the arrests, Trump campaigned on deporting foreign students involved, pledging to “make college campuses safe and patriotic again”. Upon re-election, he issued an executive order to remove foreigners with “hostile attitudes” and ordered the Department of Justice to target anti-Jewish racism in universities. He also threatened to cut all federal funding for schools hosting “illegal protests” and warned of severe consequences for students involved.
His first move came on 7 March—his administration cancelled $400 million in federal grants to Columbia as a warning to other universities. Columbia’s Irving Medical Centre, which bore the brunt of the funding cut, saw 232 projects cancelled by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
“American universities did not cause the onslaught that the second Trump administration is unleashing upon them. Trump’s directives to restrict funding for science, especially the mandate to dramatically reduce National Institutes of Health grants for scientific infrastructure, equipment, and lab support—all essential components of university science—will cripple biomedical research across the country,” Nicholas B. Dirks, former chancellor of UC Berkeley and president of the New York Academy of Sciences, wrote in The Atlantic last week.
Then, Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil—former master’s student and face of the protests—was arrested by the Immigration Department earlier this month.
Soon after, on 13 March, the University received a letter from Trump’s “Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism”, with further demands that Columbia place the college president’s office in direct control of disciplinary actions, develop a plan to hold student groups “accountable”, create new rules to prevent disruptions from protests, remove the current leadership of the Middle Eastern Studies department, and implement a complete overhaul of its admissions process.
It does not end there. Khalil’s arrest is part of a larger crackdown. A day later, on 14 March, Palestinian student Leqaa Kordia was detained for overstaying her visa, a move many view as politically motivated.
Additionally, Indian-origin PhD student Ranjini Srinivasan self-deported last week amid concerns about deportation for allegedly participating in “activities supporting Hamas.”
“Columbia University is now the epicentre of the American culture war,” American commentator and former attorney David French wrote in a New York Times opinion piece days after Khalil’s arrest.
Federal overreach and faculty war
According to activists and faculty members, this is part of Trump administration’s broader strategy to use federal funding as leverage against universities it sees as promoting “woke” progressivism. In 2021, Senate candidate J.D. Vance had called for an aggressive attack on universities, while activist Christopher Rufo advocated using funding cuts to instill “existential terror” and enforce stricter discipline on campuses.
The Trump administration has now issued a stern ultimatum to Columbia University, accusing the institution of failing to protect Jewish students from harassment and demanding sweeping changes or risk further loss of federal funding.
“We expect your immediate compliance,” the letter read, noting that Columbia’s legal team had already requested to discuss “next steps” since the announcement of the funding cuts. The letter further demanded a response from the university within a week as a condition for any formal negotiations regarding the continuation of Columbia’s financial relationship with the federal government.
Columbia University responded to the letter with a spokesperson saying the university was “reviewing the letter”, and remains committed to “advancing our mission, supporting our students, and addressing all forms of discrimination and hatred on our campus”.
A faculty war has now erupted inside the campus as a result of federal ultimatums. Professors are internally divided over how to handle the consequences of pro-Palestinian protests.
Jewish faculty from engineering, medicine and business schools are pushing for stricter measures against protesters, such as banning masks, while faculty in humanities and political sciences have been more supportive of the protests. Medical and science faculty are frustrated by the loss of funding, as they feel unfairly impacted by the controversy, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
Beyond this lies a graver concern—the invocation of almost obsolete laws to criminalise dissent.
‘Move to combat antisemitism’
The Trump administration’s arrest of Khalil came under a rarely used provision of immigration law that grants broad authority over deportation, CNN reported. Using immigration law for deportation over political views is rare. It is typically employed in cases of direct support for terrorist organisations.
What followed were large-scale protests, but with limited impact.
Democratic lawmakers accused Trump of “criminalising dissent”, with some calling his actions the “greatest threat to free speech since the Red Scare”. Critics, including Jewish groups, argued that Trump is using concerns about antisemitism to mask a broader attack on universities, protest rights and diversity programmes.
Professor Marianne Hirsch of the Columbia Jewish Faculty Group said that the focus on antisemitism at Columbia is a cover for a Republican agenda to control speech and protest on campuses.
These actions have raised serious concerns about free speech on college campuses.
“What the Trump government is doing to Mahmoud is obscene. It is unreasonable, intolerable, unconstitutional. So why do they think they can get away with it? We will not allow a white supremacist president and his party to claim the mantle of Jewish safety as they shred the Constitution,” Joseph Howley, associate professor of classics at Columbia University, wrote in an article Tuesday.
The Trump administration, however, has framed its actions as a defence of Jewish students, and an effort to combat antisemitism on college campuses. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said that the federal funding cuts were a response to what she described as a “rising tide of antisemitism” exacerbated by the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
The administration has made it clear that it sees universities like Columbia as critical battlegrounds in the fight against what it views as the normalisation of anti-Israel sentiment.
Yet, critics argue that the government’s actions are part of a broader attack on academic freedom and political expression.
“That fear, or one like it, is settling now into American institutions. The silence was instructive. In a faculty meeting I attended recently, in a high-ceilinged room with carved wood and delicately painted windows, anxiety reverberated. We were warned of funding cuts. But the real wound ran deeper: the quiet, creeping sense that something larger—the very idea of the university as a place of free inquiry—was slipping away,” Meghan O’Rourke, Editor of The Yale Review and a professor in the English department at Yale University, wrote in a New York Times opinion piece Monday.
(Edited by Radifah Kabir)
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The Humanities and Social Sciences faculty and students are the usual culprits. These good for nothings are the ones indulging in all sorts of nonsense and drama.
The faculty and students of engineering, basuc sciences and medicine hardly have enough time to take part in such idiotic acts. Unfortunately, cuts in funding affect disproportionately these faculties.
The Humanities and Social Sciences are just another way of whiling away four good years of a person’s life while learning nothing. Degrees in these domains are usually not worth the paper they are printed on.
President Trump must be commended for ensuring that Jihadi terrorists cannot and will not continue to use the woke idiots on US campuses to further their nefarious agenda. Islamism and Islamic terrorism pose the most serious threat to humanity. US universities cannot be allowed to become breeding grounds of Jihadis and terrorists. The Trump administration must ensure that every single Jihadi is thrown out of the campus and to ensure that the campuses are absolutely safe for Jewish students.