Trump administration cancels $400 million in grants for Columbia University

[ravenstone]

Trump administration cancels $400 million in grants for Columbia University

The move comes shortly after the administration notified Columbia University that it was conducting a "comprehensive review" of its federal grants and contracts.

www.nbcnews.com

I hope this action will help bring an end to Jewish students being harassed on Campus. Biden allowed it to continue but hopefully, it will finally stop.

 

[NotHardUp1]

The notion that federal programs for education should be used to punish individual colleges is anathema to the principles of higher education. For a parallel but opposite abuse, the grants to West Point or BYU because of hazing cadets, or because Mormons teach that women are second-class citizens whose main purpose is to be mothers and wives.

As typical, Mr. Trump has been vindictive and abusive, pissing on the corner fire hydrant to demonstrate dominance.

Most likely, his deep involvement in the Jewish state will blow up in his face once the Arab countries finish uniting and scuttling his plan for Gaza. There is a great likelihood the Jewish state's war crimes have triggered the seeds of a wider war, and that Trump's bombastic (no pun intended) rhetoric will land the US in the middle of another losing proposisition, one with great likelihood of seeing renewed Islamic terrorism in the continental US.

 

[ravenstone]

All of that does not mean Jewish students should be harassed in schools in the US. Would you feel the same if Blacks or Transsexuals were harassed? The universities must try and keep students safe.

 

[opinterph]

(From linked article)

“Universities must comply with all federal antidiscrimination laws if they are going to receive federal funding.”
― Education Secretary Linda McMahon

---

Would you feel the same if Blacks or Transsexuals were harassed?

Good question.

President Donald Trump this week revoked an executive order aimed at banning discrimination by federal contractors and subcontractors as part of his sweeping effort to crack down on federal diversity programs.

Trump revokes executive order banning discrimination in federal contracting (NBC News; January 22, 2025)

 

[KaraBulut]

'cause "Free Speech"?

 

[Dargelos]

Someone explain how making a university poorer will cause it's students to become less antisemitic.

 

[NotHardUp1]

All of that does not mean Jewish students should be harassed in schools in the US. Would you feel the same if Blacks or Transsexuals were harassed? The universities must try and keep students safe.

What proof can you offer than any investigation has proven that Columbia didn't?

Student conflict is not tantamount to poor supervision and policies of a university. But, even if they had been, cutting off grants is a stunt, and contrary to due process that is the bulwark of federal control. A corrective action plan might have been warranted, but we won't know now since he dropped the guillotine instead of having a trial.

For the incoming administration to arbitrarily sweep away due process and pronounce Columbia negligent, or more specifically, culpably negligent, is absurd.

They have no had time to have hearings, to gather public comments, and proceed, as should be done before contravening awarded grants from federal funds.

Making the "process" about no more than scoring political points that are anti-Palestinian is base.

That student groups clash on university campuses is a given in a heated political atmosphere. When I attended college, there were anti-Iranian regime protests on my campus that interrupted a speech to be given by a former Iranian prime minister.

The charged atmosphere of the campus reflected a larger conflict between the US status quo backing of the Shah and the growing Islamic revolution in Iran. That a protest and rally occurred was not a shortcoming of my university's staff.

Trump is virtue signalling and worse, exacting vendetta on NYC for his troubles there resulting from his multtiple illegal acts that were prosecuted there.

 

[NotHardUp1]

Someone explain how making a university poorer will cause it's students to become less antisemitic.

It's not intented to correct any problem other than to execute Trump's vendetta against NYC. "Love me or die!"

 

[rareboy]

One might say that removing $400 million dollars will actually punish all the Jewish students at Columbia as much as the pro-palestinian protestors.

Seems almost anti-semitic.

Not sure what is gained by having the President of the United States begin to try to take over universities. I guess we'd need to check with other repressive, fascist dictatorships.

 

[KaraBulut]

...Not sure what is gained by having the President of the United States begin to try to take over universities. I guess we'd need to check with other repressive, fascist dictatorships.

It's part of the autocracy playbook.

It was also pioneered in the two National Laboratories for Bad Government (aka Florida and Texas) and funded by big money White Nationalist Christian megadonors.

Florida:

https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/15/us/desantis-new-college-inclusion-reaj/index.html

Florida bill would ban students in the US without legal permission from some public universities

A Florida state lawmaker has filed a bill that would ban some of the state’s public colleges and universities from admitting students who are in the country without legal permission.

apnews.com

https://www.npr.org/2023/05/15/1176210007/florida-ron-desantis-dei-ban-diversity

Texas:

Texas law barring state contractors from boycotting Israel violates firm’s free speech, federal judge rules

Texas is one of more than two dozen states with laws that seek to limit boycotts, divestments and sanctions of Israel over its treatment of Palestine.

www.texastribune.org

https://www.texastribune.org/2025/02/27/dan-patrick-texas-legislature-higher-education-cut-dei/ ($400 million)

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick proposes ending university tenure to combat critical race theory teachings

Patrick’s declarations come days after the UT-Austin Faculty Council approved a measure reaffirming instructors’ right to teach about racial justice and critical race theory in the classroom.

www.texastribune.org

Texas Senate approves bill that would ban diversity programs in public universities

The legislation heads to the Texas House, where members have been more muted about the proposal to disband offices, programs and training that foster diversity.

www.texastribune.org

 

[rareboy]

It certainly makes a mockery of the whole 'Free Speech' myth.

But the racist, homophobic, far xian right has never been about freedom of speech for other people, have they?

 

[ravenstone]

Someone explain how making a university poorer will cause it's students to become less antisemitic.

They can feel any way they want to, they cannot however deny Jewish students their civil rights. They are college students, not IDF. Columbia would protect any other group of students so please explain why Jewish students don't deserve to feel safe on campus.

 

[Dargelos]

I cannot explain why a Jewish student does not deserve to be safe. Nobody has said that they should not be safe. Everyone should be safe, there is this thing known as DEI which is all about making minorities safer. It is Cheeto Jesus who is banning that, not this college.

 

[rareboy]

They can feel any way they want to, they cannot however deny Jewish students their civil rights. They are college students, not IDF. Columbia would protect any other group of students so please explain why Jewish students don't deserve to feel safe on campus.

I am always fascinated by the bizarre pivots that get used in a discussion by right wingers.

"You don't approve of 400 million dollars being stripped from a university, so you must not support jewish students feeling safe on campus"

This is purely and simply an intellectually dishonest flex is often used by those who are looking to redirect a topic.

The removal of 400 million dollars is about Jewish students as much as tariffs on Canada are about the American Border Services failing to apprehend fentanyl smugglers coming into the US.

The University commissioned and published a report last year and gathered testimony from over 500 students...a clear indication that the matter of student harassment and safety was taken very seriously by the University.

The OP has not explained how removing 400 million dollars in grants will make the jewish students...or any students for that matter, safer.

It is also worth noting that this latest cut comes on top of a 4 billion dollar cut in the past few weeks to universities and colleges across the country in both red states and blue states and seems more like a cut in search of a pretext than anything else.

TrumpCo. and the GQP hate universities and colleges with a passion because they need people to be uneducated and compliant. They are also determined to exert federal control over the curriculum at all levels of education, while at the same time abolishing the Department of Education.

 

[ravenstone]

I am always fascinated by the bizarre pivots that get used in a discussion by right wingers.

"You don't approve of 400 million dollars being stripped from a university, so you must not support jewish students feeling safe on campus"

This is purely and simply an intellectually dishonest flex is often used by those who are looking to redirect a topic.

The removal of 400 million dollars is about Jewish students as much as tariffs on Canada are about the American Border Services failing to apprehend fentanyl smugglers coming into the US.

The University commissioned and published a report last year and gathered testimony from over 500 students...a clear indication that the matter of student harassment and safety was taken very seriously by the University.

The OP has not explained how removing 400 million dollars in grants will make the jewish students...or any students for that matter, safer.

It is also worth noting that this latest cut comes on top of a 4 billion dollar cut in the past few weeks to universities and colleges across the country in both red states and blue states and seems more like a cut in search of a pretext than anything else.

TrumpCo. and the GQP hate universities and colleges with a passion because they need people to be uneducated and compliant. They are also determined to exert federal control over the curriculum at all levels of education, while at the same time abolishing the Department of Education.

Looks like they are safer already because Columbia is already taking action.

 

[opinterph]

The University commissioned and published a report last year and gathered testimony from over 500 students...a clear indication that the matter of student harassment and safety was taken very seriously by the University.

The Columbia University Task Force on Anti-Semitism actually released two reports last year and another is forthcoming:

Report #1: Task Force on Antisemitism
Columbia University’s Rules on Demonstrations : March 2024

Report #2: Task Force on Antisemitism
Columbia University Student Experiences of Antisemitism and Recommendations for Promoting Shared Values and Inclusion : August 2024

An upcoming report will focus on “academic issues related to exclusion in the classroom and bias in curriculum,” the university said.

Jewish students at Columbia faced hostile environment during pro-Palestinian protests, report finds (Associated Press; August 30, 2024)

---

Columbia is already taking action.

Please explain what new action Columbia University is taking to improve safety for Jewish students in response to the Initial Cancelation of Grants and Contracts to Columbia University Worth $400 Million on March 7th.

 

[KaraBulut]

Worth noting in the Columbia University report- a definition of "anti-semitism".

Antisemitism is prejudice, discrimination, hate, or violence directed at Jews, including Jewish Israelis. Antisemitism can manifest in a range of ways, including as ethnic slurs, epithets, and caricatures; stereotypes; antisemitic tropes and symbols; Holocaust denial; targeting Jews or Israelis for violence or celebrating violence against them; exclusion or discrimination based on Jewish identity or ancestry or real or perceived ties to Israel; and certain double standards applied to Israel.

Israel = Jewish = Israel in this definition.

What often was missed in the reports of "anti-semitism" was that the perpetrators were often not students at the University. And many of the instances reported as "anti-Semitism" were arguments or harassment over the actions of the Israeli government and Israeli military in Gaza. Opposition to Israeli policy is not anti-Semitism; it is political speech covered under the First Amendment.

When university administrators were called before Congress for a tongue-lashing last Fall, the administrators did a very poor job of making the case that governments, including universities cannot silence free speech just because someone doesn't like it or doesn't agree with it. This is exactly the speech suppression that conservatives have been claiming they are the victim of for decades.

Universities are responsible to keep students safe, not to protect them from opinions that they don't want to hear. Nor is the responsibility of universities to favor specific countries or governments, at the expense of other countries or governments.

Ask yourself whether you want the government determining which speech they want to allow. Don't think that will happen? Guess what...

https://thehill.com/homenews/education/5185620-rubio-ice-arrest-pro-palestinian-columbia-mahmoud-khalil-green-card-dhs-trump-immigration-crackdown/

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has confirmed the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a green card-holding Columbia University graduate student and pro-Palestinian activist, by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported,” Rubio said on the social platform X, sharing a news report regarding Khalil.

Khalil was arrested at his university residence Saturday, according to the Student Workers of Columbia labor union.

The union describes Khalil as a “lead negotiator” and called on Columbia to reinstate its “Sanctuary Campus Policy” after reports of ICE accessing multiple buildings at the school Friday and Saturday.

Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, also confirmed Khalil’s arrest in a statement Sunday to The Associated Press, describing the move as “in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism.”

 

[rareboy]

I will posit that more than 50% of the micro and macro aggressions have been verbal anti-Zionist 'attacks' and that very few have resulted in actual physical violence or assault on the real 'jewishness' of the person being attacked.

Every one of us would decry any physical harm to any student of any ethnicity or belief. Any one. Of any ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual identity, FOR ANY FUCKING REASON AT ALL.

But dear gott in himmel....the staggeringly disproportionate genocide against the innocent over the last 2 years in Gaza...if you aren't screaming at all jewish people in the US to wake the fuck up about the war crimes being committed in the name of all jews...you just aren't in the game. I have been moved to much more strident and (probably meaningless) protest against the Israeli Zionist regime that has literally been stealing and dispossessing Palestinian lad for over a century.

No different than my ongoing (and probably equally meaningless) rage against Putin attempting to steal territory in Ukraine and my burgeoning (and likely equally meaningless) resistance to an imperialist United States moving to seize Canadian territories and resouces in 2025.

I am more familiar with the outcome of anti-semitism in the 1930's and 40's than many of our stalwart defenders of the jewish students. My family saw the outcome and I think did what they could to save who they could.

I have both studied and researched the horrific outcomes of the NAZI regime's attempt to annihilate all the Jews, Homos, Gypsies and 'mental defectives' and my family's history in the Natheralnds is entwined in this narrative.

I will repeat. The removal of money from Columbia University is intended to achieve nothing more than some kind of cynical PR 'victory' for the Trump regime and will hurt EVERY student equally.

And get ready for more performance theatre as this is used as a pretext to bascially throttling any federal funds to univerities and colleges, now that the DEI excuse has been ehxuasted.

 

[opinterph]

if you aren't screaming at all jewish people in the US to wake the fuck up about the war crimes being committed in the name of all jews...you just aren't in the game.

Violence can be very damaging without causing physical harm. The Columbia University campus was rife with hostility, harassment, and disparate treatment toward Jewish students based solely on their identity -- not their personal viewpoints. I invite you to re-read the Associated Press link I posted above by Carolyn Thompson. "Screaming at all Jewish people" is perhaps a good illustration of the problem that created the difficult situation we are discussing. Screaming at all Jewish people is not "opposition to Israeli policy."

Opposition to Israeli policy is not anti-Semitism; it is political speech covered under the First Amendment.

 

[KaraBulut]

Violence can be very damaging without causing physical harm. The Columbia University campus was rife with hostility, harassment, and disparate treatment toward Jewish students based solely on their identity -- not their personal viewpoints. I invite you to re-read the Associated Press link I posted above by Carolyn Thompson. "Screaming at all Jewish people" is perhaps a good illustration of the problem that created the difficult situation we are discussing. Screaming at all Jewish people is not "opposition to Israeli policy."

The Columbia situation escalated over time. If you read and listen to the interviews, it started as pro-Gaza anti-Israel rhetoric. Then it escalated with specific threats to specific students, but many of those threats were online, not on the campus. Columbia also had two separate groups protesting. There were students doing a camp-out on the lawn but there were also pro-Palestinian activists who were in the public areas outside campus that were agitating. Oddly, when universities started cracking down on the student protests, the other protesters just vanished.

When I was a graduate student, campus Christians set up "preach-a-thons" on the campus quad. The protests were first directed toward sinners in general. Then the "preachers" showed up with bullhorns and the messages got increasingly anti-gay with one preacher daily dressing as Jesus and directing his preaching toward anyone he thought might be gay. The campus gay students organization didn't complain, instead they set up a booth next to the evangelicals and talked with anyone who stopped by. They held kiss-in counter-protests where they would invite the press to take pictures of gay students holding hands and kissing in front of the preachers. After large crowds of straight students showed up to cheer and drown out the evangelicals, they got off their crosses and went home. Pretty soon, they just stopped coming around because they realized that they were just creating bad press for Christians.

But notably- the campus Christians didn't specifically attack the gay students by name. They did not use pejoratives (although one of the preachers did try to use the word "fag" and was quickly scolded by the campus Christians) and to their credit, the Christians didn't make it personal.

The solution to most hateful speech is more speech. More speech drowns out the hateful speech.

The Columbia students who were harassed should have taken their case with specific examples to the campus Administration. It is never acceptable to be threatened on campus, never acceptable to be called out by name or singled out. However, that's not what happened. The ADL got involved and suddenly, Jewish students were being interviewed on Fox, OAN, NewsNation and other right-wing outlets. Suddenly, Congress was very interested in campus protests and hearings were held. Once Congress got a few university presidents to resign and to break up campus protests, the issue just disappeared, coincidentally after Republicans won in the election.

This issue was used for political reasons in the lead up to an election. Since the election, it's become an excuse to punish universities that the right believes are "too liberal" or who have pro-Palestinian faculty. This is another piece of the autocracy playbook to suppress free speech and scare opponents.