Columbia University agreed to change its protest-handling practices in a concession to demands listed by the Trump administration on March 21.
The agreement, which was announced after President Trump threatened to withhold nearly $400 billion in research funding to the private university, outlines several significant changes, including an overhaul of the university’s protest policies, the implementation of stricter security practices, and a ban on face masks used for the purpose of concealing one’s identity during demonstrations. Additionally, the agreement grants arrest authority to public safety officers, calls for the replacement of the university’s Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies department, and is detailed in a nine-item letter sent directly to interim University President Katrina Armstrong by the federal government.
“Our response to the government agencies outlines the substantive work we’ve been doing over the last academic year to advance our mission, ensure uninterrupted academic activities, and make every student, faculty, and staff member safe and welcome on our campus,” said Armstrong in an email to Columbia University students.
The federal government first threatened to withhold funding from universities in the first week of March, when Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said, “Universities must comply with all federal antidiscrimination laws if they are going to receive federal funding.”
The Trump administration additionally threatened to withhold $175 million from the University of Pennsylvania, partially because it allowed a transgender woman to participate in the women’s swim team, according to a post made on X by the White House’s Rapid Response Team.
However, the administration’s interest in legislating Columbia’s protests have gone further than just withholding funding. On March 8, Columbia graduate student and campus activist Mahmoud Khalil was detained by multiple ICE agents outside of his housing at the university, according to his wife, Noor Abdalla. Khalil’s lawyers said the activist may face deportation for his involvement in pro-Palestine campus protests that occurred in 2024, despite Khalil’s permanent U.S. status as a resident. “Mahmoud is Palestinian,” said Abdalla in her first public statement to Reuters. “He’s standing up for his people, he’s fighting for his people.”
Abdalla, a 28-year old dentist and U.S. citizen, is currently pregnant with the couple’s first child.
“I think it would be very devastating for me and for him to meet his first child behind a glass screen,” she said.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt spoke about organized protests on college campuses in a press statement that released the same week as Khalil’s arrest, saying that Khalil “organized group protests that not only disrupted college campus classes, harassed Jewish American students, and made them feel unsafe on their own college campus, but also distributed pro-Hamas propaganda, fliers with the logo of Hamas.”
Richland student Seth Gowen shared his thoughts on the boundaries between hate speech and free speech.
“I personally don’t like the term hate speech, because who’s gonna determine what’s hate speech?” said Gowen. “I think that speech can be hateful, or can be loving, but either way it’s gonna be free. You’re free to say what you want.”
Gowen also discussed the federal government’s involvement in enforcing safe-environment policies in schools, saying it becomes a problem when the federal government gets involved in campus-specific issues like hate speech and protests. “I think it’s OK when universities have their own territory,” said Gowen, “but it shouldn’t bring down anything legally onto somebody.”
Finally, Gowen also spoke on the precedent set by Columbia University’s concession to Trump’s demands. “I think that’s probably going to encourage the federal government to kind of insist their will upon universities, maybe going forward, or maybe a little bit more now that they see this is possible.”
