Trump declares war on Columbia University, American bastion of progressivism

In a letter dated Thursday, March 13, the Trump administration demanded "academic receivership" of Columbia University's Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies "for a minimum of five years." This unprecedented challenge to academic freedom extends the war waged by the American president against the Manhattan-based university, which has become the epicenter of student mobilization against Israel's bombardment of Gaza, in response to the October 7 terrorist attack by Hamas.

The administration began its attacks on the financial front, announcing on Friday, March 7, the withdrawal of $400 million in federal grants. The following day, it arrested Syrian student Mahmoud Khalil, one of the leaders of the pro-Palestinian protest on campus. His green card had been revoked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio himself. The 30-year-old man, married to an American woman, was placed in a detention center in Louisiana. On Friday, federal authorities announced that they had arrested a second Palestinian student involved in the pro-Gaza protests in Columbia. Academic, financial and human destabilization: The offensive is total.

The steamroller moves forward

Columbia is no accidental target. First, the university has a tradition of progressivism, launched in particular by Edward Said (1935-2003). The Palestinian, born in Jerusalem under the British Mandate and a specialist in English and comparative literature, was one of the founders of postcolonial studies, a current from which the current movement to criticize Israel draws its inspiration. His successors are still active on campus.

Second, the conflict in Gaza has deeply torn apart the faculty, especially Jewish professors, divided between those who are pro-Netanyahu and defenders of the Palestinians. Republicans pounced on this rift, accusing the university of failing to combat anti-Semitism and of inadequately protecting Jewish students. This is what Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said on March 7 to justify cutting federal aid: "Today, we demonstrate to Columbia and other universities that we will not tolerate their appalling inaction any longer."

Since then, the steamroller has been moving forward, reaching the university hospital and medical school in particular. On Monday, March 10, Edward Guo, professor of biomedical engineering, received an e-mail from the university administration informing him that his grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) had been cut. "Please immediately minimize spending to only those items that are required for research continuity purposes," management told him.

"No words," reacted the professor in a post on X. Guo is one of hundreds of researchers whose work has been brutally interrupted. "This mainly affects medicine, but also the faculty of arts and sciences," said Emmanuelle Saada, who holds the chair of the university's French faculty. "Everyone is affected."

Soaring tuition fees

While the Trump administration has cited the fight against anti-Semitism, it is in reality the university itself that is being targeted, accused of gobbling up taxpayers' money. As early as February 7, the health agency criticized the way universities use their federal aid. "Last year [in 2024] $9 billion of the $35 billion that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) granted for research was used for administrative overhead, what is known as 'indirect costs,'" charged the agency, which announced then that these costs would be capped at 15% of the award amount, "much lower than the 60%+ that some institutions charge the government today."

At Columbia, these overheads, which are also used to pay salaries, account for around 35% of the amount of grants, but reach 65% for research carried out on campus, according to an analysis by the Stand Columbia society, estimating that this first salvo could cost Columbia between $114 and $202 million. The decision was blocked by a federal judge, but it marked the beginning of the offensive. "This judge is FORCING the CORRUPTION to CONTINUE," reacted Elon Musk on X.

Politically, the Republicans can count on the support of their Trumpist base, as the numbers may give a bad image to the prestigious private Ivy League universities, whose tuition fees have skyrocketed. The price of a year's undergraduate tuition is around $62,000, with $20,000 for room rental. In addition to these tuition fees, which bring in $1.5 billion, Columbia receives $1.3 billion in federal aid and $1.8 billion from hospital patients, out of an annual budget of $6.5 billion. The university also has an endowment worth around $14 billion. These sums can be explained, but raise questions in a context of mistrust. "I agree that this is a serious weakness in the American system," said mathematics professor Michael Thaddeus.

"Universities aren't doing very well in the US," said Saada, regretting that the institution is no longer a factor in social mobility. The professor deplored the "disqualification of the humanities and social sciences," exacerbated by soaring tuition fees, which force students into fields leading to more financially attractive careers, enabling them to repay their loans. "This is where Trump's attacks are taking shape," Saada explained.

Salary and hiring freeze

Columbia's interim president, Katrina Armstrong, seems tempted to ride out the storm. She has said she is cooperating with the federal authorities and will not defend the students who have been arrested. Despite the tensions, she has managed to restore dialogue with faculty and students, which was not the case with her predecessor, Nemat Shafik. Shafik, an Egyptian-American-British economist, had found herself trapped in Congress between defending freedom of expression and fighting anti-Semitism. The crisis culminated in New York police intervening on campus. The president threw in the towel in the summer of 2024.

Trump's sanctions could be a divisive factor. The medical school, which is very active against anti-Semitism, is taking the full brunt of the federal cuts, while the humanities, where there are stronger protests, are paradoxically less affected because their departments are funded by tuition fees. "Faculty-on-Faculty War Erupts at Columbia," headlined The Wall Street Journal on March 11. "There's an objective solidarity," Saada contests. "We're going to make transfers to them out of our tuition fees."

The university is tightening the screws, with wage and hiring freezes. All departments have to present budgets down by 6%. But the punitive measures will continue. Saada worries that some programs won't receive their federal accreditation, which must be renewed every 10 years. The Trump administration is even considering taxing endowment income, which is currently tax-exempt, and limiting the level of borrowing, federal or private, that students can take out. "They don't really care about the level of tuition. The goal is to muzzle us," summed upSaada.

Arnaud Leparmentier (New York (United States) correspondent)