José A. Alvarado Jr.

In acquiescence to President Trump, Columbia University today agreed to overhaul its security and protest policies, and its Middle Eastern studies department. 

The Trump administration accused Columbia of failing to protect students and staff from antisemitic violence and harassment, and refused to consider restoring $400 million in federal funding without the university making the changes. 

As part of the agreement, Columbia plans to largely ban masks on campus and hire a new internal security force. 

The university will also appoint a provost to oversee the university’s Middle Eastern, South Asian and African studies department. The administration called for the department to be placed under academic receivership. Historians and professors had expressed concern about the government’s possible intervention: “It is one small department in one university,” said a retired former chair of the department. “But it will reverberate across the entire country.”

Columbia’s agreement comes as the White House bears down on higher education institutions. Other elite colleges and universities — including Harvard and Stanford — face federal inquiries. And earlier this week, the administration said it would cancel $175 million in federal funding for the University of Pennsylvania, at least partly because it had allowed a transgender woman on its women’s swim team.