The Trump administration has announced a cutoff of $400 million in funding to Columbia University, supposedly because of its failure to take action against anti-semitism on the campus. Two months ago one would have assumed that the idea that the US president had the power to rule by decree and defund any institution he wanted to was absurd. All children in the US are taught in school about the checks and balances of the US constitutional system, which are designed to make this kind of thing impossible. We’re now learning every day something very different, how Fascist dictatorship can come to power, even in a constitutional democracy.
One thing we’re learning about the mechanism of Fascism is the central role of lies. The accusations of anti-semitism against Columbia are lies and much of what you may have read about what is happening here is lies. The current situation at Columbia is no different than that at any other university in the US: there are strong feelings on both sides about the Gaza war, and the administration has been doing its best to manage the conflict and taking extreme measures to protect people from harm.
One of the most privileged aspects of my rather privileged life is that I have an office that overlooks the northern part of the central campus. Most days I come in to work there, several times a day going through the main gates and the center of campus. Since last fall the campus has been extremely quiet. There have been rare and small peaceful protests by student groups. Outside the main gates, on a small number of occasions small groups have gathered to peacefully protest there, with such protests restricted to behind metal barriers and supervised by the NYPD.
The Columbia campus traditionally has been open: anyone could come on campus anytime and enter the academic buildings during the day. For many months now that has changed dramatically. Many gates have been closed and those still open have multiple security guards who demand to see a university ID, check that the picture on it is you and scan it on a device that checks to see if you are allowed on campus (if so, there’s a green light and you can go through). When you get to the math building it’s now always locked and you have to use your ID to unlock the door (for a while there was also a security guard stationed at the door).
When asked why we have to live with this new invasive security presence, the administration explains that it has been put in place mainly to protect people from anti-semitism. It is just one part of an intensive effort by the administration to try and address concerns about anti-semitic threats. The idea seems to have been that this effort would stop the Trump administration from taking action against the university.
I’m not allowing comments here. Beyond the usual reason that I don’t want to waste my time on moderating the kind of discussion this would attract, there’s something new going on. Administrators have been fired for saying the wrong thing and I hear Title VI investigations can be opened if there’s an accusation against you. What I’m seeing from my office is a lot of quiet.
In other news, our Fascist dictator has now explicitly allied the US with the Russian Fascist dictator and has removed the protections it was providing for Ukrainians being slaughtered by the Russians. This is deeply shameful for the people of the US. I think I’m allowed to say that, for now.
Update: This is extremely depressing.
Update: Plainclothes ICE officers are in the Columbia neighborhood, arresting at least one green-card holding pro-Palestinian activist outside his university residence and taking him to prison. Such officers do not have judicial warrants, are acting at the instruction of Trump’s DOJ. The university-provided guidance about such agents is here. I guess the security presence at the gates now has a good reason for being there.
