Category Archives: The Situation at Columbia

The fall semester is now under way at Columbia, and in many ways things are normal: enrollments are as usual or higher, foreign students have mostly gotten visas and are on campus. There are some new things though which are … Continue reading →

Actually, nothing really new at Columbia. New students arriving, classes start next week. Still tight security at the gates and the administration’s highest priority is to continue to ensure that no “antisemitic” protest of the war crimes going on in … Continue reading →

Columbia’s new policies intended to stop and punish any on-campus criticism of the Gaza genocide by characterizing it as “antisemitism” have made it impossible for Rashid Khalidi to teach his planned fall course. See his explanation here, which ends with: … Continue reading →

The trustees on Friday changed the Charters and Statutes of the university, something it seems they can just do when they feel like it, without consulting with anyone or telling the community what they’ve done. Stand Columbia (Tao Tan) is … Continue reading →

The long-awaited second cave-in by the Columbia trustees to Trump demands was announced yesterday, details here. A few initial comments: Columbia law professor David Pozen explains that this is part of a new form of autocratic government in the US: … Continue reading →

When I first started writing here about what was going on at Columbia, part of the motivation was that I didn’t understand myself a lot of what was happening, especially the actions of the trustees. Things are different now, I … Continue reading →

I’ll be heading out on vacation tomorrow morning, on a road trip first to Montreal, then Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, back at work on the 21st. While away I’ll try to detox from reading or thinking about the topics of … Continue reading →

There are a couple reports out very recently that NIH is lifting its block on paying grant funds to Columbia, see here and here. According to one of these reports, this applies only to Columbia, not to Brown/Northwestern/Cornell/Harvard. Presumably Columbia … Continue reading →

Now back on the Columbia campus after nearly two weeks away traveling. It is extremely quiet here, just some summer classes going on. Security remains intense: you have to go through one of a small number of checkpoints to get … Continue reading →