I really enjoyed this article Jill. I’m sorry to see that it has come to this and I agree with you that the offenders are not the people who will suffer. However, Federal money is not a gift nor is it a right. It is a contract and the terms are made plain: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-45/subtitle-A/subchapter-A/part-80
Title VI enforcement is broad on purpose (same for all of the Civil Rights code). This is done to ensure that there will not be rampant discrimination in one part of the school while the money continues to flow. The school administrators knew the terms, they can now take the chance in court.
They can also use their endowment. $400M is less than 3% of Columbia’s endowment and a part of me has to wonder if that isn’t the actual goal here—to force the tax exempt university to spend its own money.
I am not a fan of the cuts to university funding the administration is imposing on Columbia. This is not because I don't think there should be consequences to the violent behavior on its campuses. It is also not because I am against the "collective punishment" aspect of what has happened here (and I presume you are invoking the terminology of a war crime only as hyperbole). Primarily, this is because I view the grant as a contract between the government and the investigators and their institutions that should be honored. Secondarily, it is because Congress has authorized the funds to be spent, and this is a ridiculous way to spend money -- pulling it from research projects that are partially implemented. We are witnessing calamitous executive branch behavior with much of what is emanating from DOGE and related efforts.
If the administration had instead announced that Columbia would be ineligible for future funding opportunities unless a set of conditions like those being imposed were met, I would be more favorably inclined toward the government's actions (though a lot depends on the details). In that case, no contracts are being violated. And in the scenario in which a grant at Columbia is denied, it instead goes to the next best applicant. The difference in what society gets for the government's expenditure is likely to be small. And again, the money that Congress has authorized is being spent.
If Columbia's leadership cannot conduct the university in a manner that respects its own rules and the law, then the government (on behalf of the people) should not be obliged to collaborate with it or subsidize it. As always, I would prefer that the rules by which an institution is excluded were determined by Congress rather than the administration, but in this case, that would require someone to wake Congress from its slumber and prompt it to do its job.
Yes. I agree with this assessment. Re: your final paragraph...if the government decides that they don't wish to collaborate or subsidize the university, then it has to go full-measure - and that includes the availability of federal loans that are tied to students (which become unavailable when a university loses its accreditation).
There also need to be rules relating to foreign money flowing through universities like Columbia, which no doubt have an effect on the current climate there.
When I refer to collective punishment, I don't mean it in the war crime sense--more like in the "kin punishment" sense.
If it was June 2024 you’d have an argument. It’s not. Columbia has done nothing about antisemitism. The only think that got there attention is the funding issue. Maybe they could step in a bit and use some of their hedge fund (endowment) money to keep research going. Btw Columbia was warned by Jewish alumni and Jewish faculty. They have taken millions or billions in federal funds and broke the law. No choice now
My point is that we should be advocating for the worst offenders to be punished - that would be the faculty who participated in the pro-Hamas demonstrations + the executives who did nothing about it. Not people like Dr. Lipkin
It is of course an extreme punishment but one which is sadly needed. So called universities and the people working in them are responsible for what goes on , as a whole.
This isn’t about Queers in Gaza, but about a complete loss of control of the process and being taken over by agents of Hamas for months.
The government pays these universities to perform research and teach for the benefit of all. University is not a place where antisemites come of age, at least not paid for by taxes.
When the faculty is so far gone regarding Jews, women, the truth, Islam someone must be the adult in the room. Biden etc failed to stop violent antisemitism for one year, although it would have been very easy to start arresting people and revoking visas.
Cutting funding also dissolves old power structures and gives people the opportunity to hopefully set up a different research system, in parts, one which does not allow Hamas camps in the court yard.
It does not dissolve old power structures. The president, the administration, those who make the decisions on how to allocate funding within the university structure - all of them are still there, as are the majority of the faculty who set up the "Hamas camps."
It does not change the power equation at all if the higher-ups who make the decisions at the executive level are all still there under the same salaries, acting like victims.
It changes because 1) they are losing federal dollars and will lose research scientists if they don’t fix this and 2) they won’t listen much more to the professors of queer theory who don’t have any money at risk.
You honestly think that the president of Columbia cares about losing some rank-and-file research scientists, if it means she can keep her 7-figure salary? No. She can just point the finger at Trump and say "we had little choice but to let them go, it's not my fault."
Jill, this is only the beginning. If these executives bring this much damage to their university, they will think twice about political grandstanding.
The Jewish press has the names of the criminals and enablers. They will be watched.
The beginning will be an outside administration taking over the Middle East Department. I read somewhere that this is usually the beginning of the end. Power structures may well get dissolved when entire departments are abolished. Maybe Trump will even close Columbia by bankrupting it.
I am still waiting for the courts cases brought against Columbia by victimised Jews , also the UC system. The damages paid out could inflict catastrophic damages and or curtail antisemitism in the future at UCLA , UCI etc .
Yes. Do you understand about the indirects and how research scientists fund the university? How careers in science are made by NIH grants. The acting head Kristina Armstrong comes from academic medicine. She knows.
As an employer the university must also protect the staff in the broader meaning of that word.
Reputations may be scarred merely by being at Columbia during that time, regardless of where you were on campus.
The stress level of having to concentrate on scientific research and have to walk past dozens of fully masked aggressive people who constantly transgress against all who simply wish to work or study.
Time will tell that these demonstrations sought the stage of the University’s as a legal grey space. Obviously tapping into “revolutionary images” like their mass murdering parents with their 70s terror.
Had they occupied a park, Trump Tower or an intersection they would have been gone in 60 minutes.
Listen to Khalil's pressers. He is obviously trained, he studied it, in this diplomatic mumbo jumbo which only has the purpose of owning the narrative and wasting time. It is a form of hybrid warfare.
Working at the British embassy , he learnt how to articulate .
It is a start that Columbia gave into the demands, which are simply common sense. Like the mask ban, more campus police powers and of course the departments which will be run by a sane individual from outside this gangrenous antisemitic wound they call Columbia University.
It's kind of a misleading statistic (and I've seen it circulated around). Yes, Columbia has 35,000 students total and 20,000 international students, but the overall proportion varies greatly based on program/school. There are certain graduate programs for example that are heavily reliant on international students (and their $$$) while undergraduate programs and the law school are overwhelmingly domestic.
If I had to guess, the School of Public Affairs is overwhelmingly international students, but that's to be expected.
No, the year long attacks on Jewish students with the encouragement of faculty and acquiescence of university administrators was collective punishment. Denying universities taxpayer funds is a means of extracting justice.
This is the only leverage, aside from Title VI lawsuits, the federal government has to induce compliance with the law from universities. I know you’re not suggesting that universities didn’t violate the civil rights of Jewish students, didn’t cover up for hate speech, threats, violence and vandalism. Didn’t protect the perpetrators of crimes. Because universities did all those things.
The Biden administration didn’t have the spine to insist that letting the students and faculty in the Free Palestine cult run wild is egregious law breaking. Harris was even more of a supporter of the Free Palestine cult. The Democratic Party has been a giant disappointment and disgrace on this topic. I fully support applying financial and legal pressure on universities if that’s what it takes them to follow the law and enforce the law. It should have started earlier but unfortunately the Biden administration was stuffed full of progressive putzes.
Your math about the impact is also deeply wrong. Columbia has a $6.6B annual operating budget and $1.3B of that is covered by the federal government. How long will they survive by raiding their $14.8B endowment? In ten years of taking away federal funds they are out of endowment. Your claim that this cut doesn’t matter to them flies in the face of their actual response. Suddenly they’re paying attention, right?
Fuck every single Ivy League university and other elite shits standing behind Jew hate and violence. These cuts will get them to reform, and if they don’t, I am fine with them shutting down. Other universities can pick up the research slack, there are hundreds of universities in the US. None of this is a problem, it is THE proper way to go about getting the attention of university administrators and boards.
But what about the Jewish faculty members and Jewish students who were part of the collective punishment you speak of who now might get the axe or have their projects and educational activities cut? Why do they deserve both ends of the sword?
My point in bringing up the endowment amount (alongside the amount that the federal government is taking away) is to drive the point that Columbia, as a multi-billion dollar organization, has the resources to deal with a $400 million cut from the federal government (provided of course that it's temporary and they make the changes that they need to prevent it from happening in subsequent years). There is no reason that President Armstrong should be acting like a victim in this situation. None.
A Jewish student that got into Columbia and can pay $90K a year has the option of transferring to many other superior universities. That’s not a problem at all. Jewish faculty can similarly go elsewhere. The ones in the FJP can fuck off for their advocacy for Hamas terrorism. The US has so many universities that making an example of Columbia and several others of the most egregious ones is a fine course of action and I have no tears to shed over that shitty university. I will not hire anyone who went there during 2023 onward. Zero chance. I scrutinize every candidate I interview through Canary Mission now.
Columbia’s administration and board can cooperate with the federal government. They can turn over disciplinary documents to the government. They can censure and monitor the worst of their faculty and staff. They can use the same approach they take on a student or faculty misgendering someone to someone using “Zionist” as an epithet - equal treatment and enforcement. You know nobody would be advocating for the KKK for 18 months at Columbia in a fucking face covering hood without repercussions. It’s that simple. Their fate is in their hands, and they prefer to be Jew-hating, genocide celebrating freaks.
The institution fucked up, so the institution suffers consequences. That is not collective punishment. But yeah, Dr Lipkin does seem like a good guy. Hopefully the Qataris think so too since that is now where he has to go for funding.
“ Critics say universities had this crackdown coming after failing to hold up their end of a longtime social contract. Faculty enjoy billions of dollars in government funding, tenure protections and academic autonomy, and detractors accuse them of indoctrinating young people with left-wing ideology rather than creating productive, patriotic citizens.”
I really enjoyed this article Jill. I’m sorry to see that it has come to this and I agree with you that the offenders are not the people who will suffer. However, Federal money is not a gift nor is it a right. It is a contract and the terms are made plain: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-45/subtitle-A/subchapter-A/part-80
Title VI enforcement is broad on purpose (same for all of the Civil Rights code). This is done to ensure that there will not be rampant discrimination in one part of the school while the money continues to flow. The school administrators knew the terms, they can now take the chance in court.
They can also use their endowment. $400M is less than 3% of Columbia’s endowment and a part of me has to wonder if that isn’t the actual goal here—to force the tax exempt university to spend its own money.
...or spend more of Qatar's money.
It should also be made illegal for universities to take money from foreign nations and citizens.
THAT would be Columbia's death knell, probably more so than the federal funding cuts...
Por que no los dos?
Spot on article!
I am not a fan of the cuts to university funding the administration is imposing on Columbia. This is not because I don't think there should be consequences to the violent behavior on its campuses. It is also not because I am against the "collective punishment" aspect of what has happened here (and I presume you are invoking the terminology of a war crime only as hyperbole). Primarily, this is because I view the grant as a contract between the government and the investigators and their institutions that should be honored. Secondarily, it is because Congress has authorized the funds to be spent, and this is a ridiculous way to spend money -- pulling it from research projects that are partially implemented. We are witnessing calamitous executive branch behavior with much of what is emanating from DOGE and related efforts.
If the administration had instead announced that Columbia would be ineligible for future funding opportunities unless a set of conditions like those being imposed were met, I would be more favorably inclined toward the government's actions (though a lot depends on the details). In that case, no contracts are being violated. And in the scenario in which a grant at Columbia is denied, it instead goes to the next best applicant. The difference in what society gets for the government's expenditure is likely to be small. And again, the money that Congress has authorized is being spent.
If Columbia's leadership cannot conduct the university in a manner that respects its own rules and the law, then the government (on behalf of the people) should not be obliged to collaborate with it or subsidize it. As always, I would prefer that the rules by which an institution is excluded were determined by Congress rather than the administration, but in this case, that would require someone to wake Congress from its slumber and prompt it to do its job.
Yes. I agree with this assessment. Re: your final paragraph...if the government decides that they don't wish to collaborate or subsidize the university, then it has to go full-measure - and that includes the availability of federal loans that are tied to students (which become unavailable when a university loses its accreditation).
There also need to be rules relating to foreign money flowing through universities like Columbia, which no doubt have an effect on the current climate there.
When I refer to collective punishment, I don't mean it in the war crime sense--more like in the "kin punishment" sense.
If it was June 2024 you’d have an argument. It’s not. Columbia has done nothing about antisemitism. The only think that got there attention is the funding issue. Maybe they could step in a bit and use some of their hedge fund (endowment) money to keep research going. Btw Columbia was warned by Jewish alumni and Jewish faculty. They have taken millions or billions in federal funds and broke the law. No choice now
My point is that we should be advocating for the worst offenders to be punished - that would be the faculty who participated in the pro-Hamas demonstrations + the executives who did nothing about it. Not people like Dr. Lipkin
Well I’m sure he’s great but sadly I don’t believe Columbia would have paid one bit of attention to anything else.
It is of course an extreme punishment but one which is sadly needed. So called universities and the people working in them are responsible for what goes on , as a whole.
This isn’t about Queers in Gaza, but about a complete loss of control of the process and being taken over by agents of Hamas for months.
The government pays these universities to perform research and teach for the benefit of all. University is not a place where antisemites come of age, at least not paid for by taxes.
When the faculty is so far gone regarding Jews, women, the truth, Islam someone must be the adult in the room. Biden etc failed to stop violent antisemitism for one year, although it would have been very easy to start arresting people and revoking visas.
Cutting funding also dissolves old power structures and gives people the opportunity to hopefully set up a different research system, in parts, one which does not allow Hamas camps in the court yard.
It does not dissolve old power structures. The president, the administration, those who make the decisions on how to allocate funding within the university structure - all of them are still there, as are the majority of the faculty who set up the "Hamas camps."
Several departments are going into receivership. Losing funding also changes the entire power equation.
It does not change the power equation at all if the higher-ups who make the decisions at the executive level are all still there under the same salaries, acting like victims.
It changes because 1) they are losing federal dollars and will lose research scientists if they don’t fix this and 2) they won’t listen much more to the professors of queer theory who don’t have any money at risk.
You honestly think that the president of Columbia cares about losing some rank-and-file research scientists, if it means she can keep her 7-figure salary? No. She can just point the finger at Trump and say "we had little choice but to let them go, it's not my fault."
Jill, this is only the beginning. If these executives bring this much damage to their university, they will think twice about political grandstanding.
The Jewish press has the names of the criminals and enablers. They will be watched.
The beginning will be an outside administration taking over the Middle East Department. I read somewhere that this is usually the beginning of the end. Power structures may well get dissolved when entire departments are abolished. Maybe Trump will even close Columbia by bankrupting it.
I am still waiting for the courts cases brought against Columbia by victimised Jews , also the UC system. The damages paid out could inflict catastrophic damages and or curtail antisemitism in the future at UCLA , UCI etc .
Yes. Do you understand about the indirects and how research scientists fund the university? How careers in science are made by NIH grants. The acting head Kristina Armstrong comes from academic medicine. She knows.
This from The Becket Fund. They have good write ups with links on how UCLA was handled in the courts.
This is only one case. I assume damages will be sought later.
https://becketfund.org/media/ucla-students-professor-demand-permanent-end-to-jew-exclusion/
As an employer the university must also protect the staff in the broader meaning of that word.
Reputations may be scarred merely by being at Columbia during that time, regardless of where you were on campus.
The stress level of having to concentrate on scientific research and have to walk past dozens of fully masked aggressive people who constantly transgress against all who simply wish to work or study.
Time will tell that these demonstrations sought the stage of the University’s as a legal grey space. Obviously tapping into “revolutionary images” like their mass murdering parents with their 70s terror.
Had they occupied a park, Trump Tower or an intersection they would have been gone in 60 minutes.
Listen to Khalil's pressers. He is obviously trained, he studied it, in this diplomatic mumbo jumbo which only has the purpose of owning the narrative and wasting time. It is a form of hybrid warfare.
Working at the British embassy , he learnt how to articulate .
Columbia numbers https://www.instagram.com/reel/DHOVWmNuoqN/?igsh=Zmg2OXFqcnkzN2xu
Any comments on recent news that apparently Columbia U has agreed to the government demands?
It is a start that Columbia gave into the demands, which are simply common sense. Like the mask ban, more campus police powers and of course the departments which will be run by a sane individual from outside this gangrenous antisemitic wound they call Columbia University.
I am no Bannon fan, but this just popped on my insta feed regarding Columbia. Columbia isn’t an American university. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DHds6xQuJUJ/?igsh=MTI5bzJ3Ymp6dHNwMA==
It's kind of a misleading statistic (and I've seen it circulated around). Yes, Columbia has 35,000 students total and 20,000 international students, but the overall proportion varies greatly based on program/school. There are certain graduate programs for example that are heavily reliant on international students (and their $$$) while undergraduate programs and the law school are overwhelmingly domestic.
If I had to guess, the School of Public Affairs is overwhelmingly international students, but that's to be expected.
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/columbia-university-caves-to-trumps-ultimatum-to-curb-campus-antisemitism-or-risk-federal-funding/
No, the year long attacks on Jewish students with the encouragement of faculty and acquiescence of university administrators was collective punishment. Denying universities taxpayer funds is a means of extracting justice.
This is the only leverage, aside from Title VI lawsuits, the federal government has to induce compliance with the law from universities. I know you’re not suggesting that universities didn’t violate the civil rights of Jewish students, didn’t cover up for hate speech, threats, violence and vandalism. Didn’t protect the perpetrators of crimes. Because universities did all those things.
The Biden administration didn’t have the spine to insist that letting the students and faculty in the Free Palestine cult run wild is egregious law breaking. Harris was even more of a supporter of the Free Palestine cult. The Democratic Party has been a giant disappointment and disgrace on this topic. I fully support applying financial and legal pressure on universities if that’s what it takes them to follow the law and enforce the law. It should have started earlier but unfortunately the Biden administration was stuffed full of progressive putzes.
Your math about the impact is also deeply wrong. Columbia has a $6.6B annual operating budget and $1.3B of that is covered by the federal government. How long will they survive by raiding their $14.8B endowment? In ten years of taking away federal funds they are out of endowment. Your claim that this cut doesn’t matter to them flies in the face of their actual response. Suddenly they’re paying attention, right?
Fuck every single Ivy League university and other elite shits standing behind Jew hate and violence. These cuts will get them to reform, and if they don’t, I am fine with them shutting down. Other universities can pick up the research slack, there are hundreds of universities in the US. None of this is a problem, it is THE proper way to go about getting the attention of university administrators and boards.
But what about the Jewish faculty members and Jewish students who were part of the collective punishment you speak of who now might get the axe or have their projects and educational activities cut? Why do they deserve both ends of the sword?
My point in bringing up the endowment amount (alongside the amount that the federal government is taking away) is to drive the point that Columbia, as a multi-billion dollar organization, has the resources to deal with a $400 million cut from the federal government (provided of course that it's temporary and they make the changes that they need to prevent it from happening in subsequent years). There is no reason that President Armstrong should be acting like a victim in this situation. None.
A Jewish student that got into Columbia and can pay $90K a year has the option of transferring to many other superior universities. That’s not a problem at all. Jewish faculty can similarly go elsewhere. The ones in the FJP can fuck off for their advocacy for Hamas terrorism. The US has so many universities that making an example of Columbia and several others of the most egregious ones is a fine course of action and I have no tears to shed over that shitty university. I will not hire anyone who went there during 2023 onward. Zero chance. I scrutinize every candidate I interview through Canary Mission now.
Columbia’s administration and board can cooperate with the federal government. They can turn over disciplinary documents to the government. They can censure and monitor the worst of their faculty and staff. They can use the same approach they take on a student or faculty misgendering someone to someone using “Zionist” as an epithet - equal treatment and enforcement. You know nobody would be advocating for the KKK for 18 months at Columbia in a fucking face covering hood without repercussions. It’s that simple. Their fate is in their hands, and they prefer to be Jew-hating, genocide celebrating freaks.
The institution fucked up, so the institution suffers consequences. That is not collective punishment. But yeah, Dr Lipkin does seem like a good guy. Hopefully the Qataris think so too since that is now where he has to go for funding.
Quote from the recent WSJ ,
“ Critics say universities had this crackdown coming after failing to hold up their end of a longtime social contract. Faculty enjoy billions of dollars in government funding, tenure protections and academic autonomy, and detractors accuse them of indoctrinating young people with left-wing ideology rather than creating productive, patriotic citizens.”
https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/universities-trump-lobbyists-funding-washington-a2e5c77a?mod=mhp
On 23.3.25
So called universities do enjoy lovely perks and privileges. To obviously be impartial and offer unbiased research.
Ironically universities in Germany also have to scale back as the economy bites.
Great piece
I wonder if Trump's supporters see all of the failures you've outlined here.