Author Archives: woit

This morning we received a long message from the acting president, entitled Preserving Columbia’s Critical Research Capabilities. Here’s a summary: It’s a complete mystery to me, but the trustees still refuse to go to court to challenge the defunding of … Continue reading →

More is coming out about the awful implications of the ongoing refusal by the trustees to in any way challenge the Trump administration’s funding cancellations. See this open letter in the Columbia Spectator, which begins: On March 10, the federal … Continue reading →

Still no news about the status of negotiations for a possible further cave-in to autocracy by the Columbia board of trustees. In the meantime, a few items: It’s becoming unclear whether there will be any scientific research funding to get … Continue reading →

Excellent news from Vermont: Columbia student Mohsen Mahdawi was released on orders of the judge in his case. This is yet another positive indication that resistance to the new dictatorship is possible, with the US judicial system still functional enough … Continue reading →

An article at the Observer with the title How Columbia University is tearing itself apart to please Trump claims Columbia’s problems really have been coming from within the house According to two well-informed sources, members of the board of trustees … Continue reading →

There was a Senate Town Hall held here at Columbia last night, which I should have attended, but didn’t (I thought it would be pointless debate about possible reform of the Senate, my mistake). The Columbia Spectator has an article … Continue reading →

Harvard has gone ahead and done what Columbia should have done a month and a half ago: filed a lawsuit over the Trump administration’s illegal cutoff of funding for grants hosted at the university. The statement from Harvard about this … Continue reading →

There was a standing room only Arts and Sciences faculty meeting today here at Columbia, in which the acting president Claire Shipman spoke for a while and then took questions from faculty members. The questions on the whole were challenging … Continue reading →

The first good news I’ve heard so far: Harvard has announced that it will not cave-in the way Columbia did. The letter from their lawyers is the one Columbia’s lawyers should have written, ending with: [your letter] presents demands that, … Continue reading →