CNN
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Columbia University has announced a series of new policies following President Trump’s revocation of $400 million in federal funding over campus protests.
Among the changes are a review of admissions policies, making it easier to report harassment, tightening rules about the location of protests, prohibiting masks at protests, hiring 36 additional campus police officers with new arrest powers and giving the office of the provost more authority to deal with disciplinary action against students involved in protests.
The university is also reviewing its curriculum, beginning with courses about the Middle East.
The last academic year saw widespread campus unrest, including pro-Palestinian protests and encampments, counterprotests, building takeovers, arrests and scaled-back graduation ceremonies. Columbia became the epicenter of the nationwide demonstrations.
“We have worked hard to address the legitimate concerns raised both from within and without our Columbia community, including by our regulators, with respect to the discrimination, harassment, and antisemitic acts our Jewish community has faced in the wake of October 7, 2023,” reads the statement from the office of the university’s interim president Dr. Katrina Armstrong.
Under the new rules, all individuals who engage in protests or demonstrations must, when asked, show their university ID and are banned from wearing face coverings for the purpose of “concealing one’s identity,” according to the document.
The university said it will expand intellectual diversity among faculty to assure fairness in Middle East studies and will commit to “institutional neutrality” universitywide.
The Trump administration pulled $400 million from Columbia University earlier in March, canceling grants and contracts because of what the government described as the Ivy League school’s failure to squelch antisemitism on campus.
The New York Civil Liberties Union’s executive director, Donna Lieberman, called the move an unconstitutional government effort “to coerce colleges and universities into censoring student speech and advocacy that isn’t MAGA-approved, like criticizing Israel or supporting Palestinian rights.”
Columbia became the first target in President Donald Trump’s campaign to cut federal money to colleges accused of tolerating antisemitism amid the Israel-Hamas war that began in October 2023.
In the second week of his second term, Trump signed an executive order promising to “combat antisemitism” on college campuses, by revoking visas and directing universities to “monitor” and “report” on the activities of international students and staff.
The Trump administration on March 8 directed immigration officers to arrest Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia graduate and prominent Palestinian activist who played a central role in protests against the Israel-Hamas war on the campus last year.
CNN is reviewing the documents released by the university.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
