Trump Administrations Letter to Columbia University

Social Media · 2025-03-18T00:05:03Z

U.S. government is demanding Columbia University “begin the process of placing the Middle East, South Asian, and African Studies department under academic receivership for a minimum of five years. The University must provide a full plan, with date certain deliverables, by the March 20, 2025, deadline.”

What this means:
A joint letter from the General Services Administration, U.S. Department of Education; and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services demands that Columbia university must provide a concrete plan with specific deadlines for how it will restructure and manage the the Middle East, South Asian, and African Studies (MESAAS) department, beginning by placing it under direct oversight, and restructuring it for at least five years.

“Academic receivership” typically involves the university appointing an external authority or a special administrator to oversee the department’s operations, curriculum, faculty decisions, and possibly hiring or firing processes.

The government makes clear in the letter shared that it sees the MESAAS department as a source of alleged “antisemitism.”

The full text of the letter:
—-

Dr. Katrina Armstrong
Interim President
Columbia University
Office of the President
202 Low Library
535 W. 116 St., MC 4309
New York, NY 10027

David Greenwald
Claire Shipman
Co-Chairs
Columbia Board of Trustees
202 Low Library
535 W. 116 St. MC 4309
New York, NY 10027

Dear Dr. Armstrong:

Please consider this a formal response to the current situation on the campus of Columbia University and a follow up to our letter of March 7, 2025, informing you that the United States Government would be pausing or terminating federal funding. Since that date your counsel has asked to discuss “next steps.”

U.S. taxpayers invest enormously in U.S. colleges and universities, including Columbia University, and it is the responsibility of the federal government to ensure that all recipients are responsible stewards of federal funds. Columbia University, however, has fundamentally failed to protect American students and faculty from antisemitic violence and harassment in addition to other alleged violations of Title VI and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Pursuant to your request, this letter outlines immediate next steps that we regard as a precondition for formal negotiations regarding Columbia University’s continued financial relationship with the United States government.

Please ensure and document compliance with the following no later than the close of business on Wednesday, March 20, 2025:

• Enforce existing disciplinary policies. The University must complete disciplinary proceedings for Hamilton Hall and encampments. Meaningful discipline means expulsion or multi-year suspension.

• Primacy of the president in disciplinary matters. Abolish the University Judicial Board (UB) and centralize all disciplinary processes under the Office of the President. And empower the Office of the President to suspend or expel students with an appeal process through the Office of the President.

• Time, place, and manner rules. Implement permanent, comprehensive time, place, and manner rules to prevent disruption of teaching, research, and campus life.

• Mask ban. Ban masks that are intended to conceal identity or intimidate others, with exceptions for religious and health reasons. Any masked individual must wear their Columbia ID on the outside of their clothing (this is already the policy at Columbia’s Irving Medical Center).

• Deliver plan to hold all student groups accountable. Recognized student groups and individuals operating as constituent members of, or providing support for, unrecognized groups engaged in violations of University policy must be held accountable through formal investigations, disciplinary proceedings, and expulsion as appropriate.

• Formalize, adopt, and promulgate a definition of antisemitism. President Trump’s Executive Order 13899 uses the IHRA definition. Anti-“Zionist” discrimination against Jews in areas unrelated to Israel or Middle East must be addressed.

• Empower internal law enforcement. The University must ensure that Columbia security has full law enforcement authority, including arrest and removal of agitators who foster an unsafe or hostile work or study environment, or otherwise interfere with classroom instruction or the functioning of the university.

• MESAAS Department - Academic Receivership. Begin the process of placing the Middle East, South Asian, and African Studies department under academic receivership for a minimum of five years. The University must provide a full plan, with date certain deliverables, by the March 20, 2025, deadline.

• Deliver a plan for comprehensive admissions reform. The plan must include a strategy to reform undergraduate admissions, international recruiting, and graduate admissions practices to conform with federal law and policy.

Based on a report by US Gov | NYT 2025-03-17