In a shock announcement earlier this month, the Trump administration cancelled $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University with immediate effect.
In a joint statement, several federal agencies cited the university’s “continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students” as the reasoning for this immediate defunding. The statement claims that this harassment has stemmed from “radical” pro-Palestine protests that occurred on campus in the past year.
In the subsequent weeks following this announcement, the situation for pro-Palestine activists on Columbia’s campus has seemingly only worsened.
On Sunday March 9, Mahmoud Khalil, a recent masters graduate from Columbia University and prominent pro-Palestine student activist, was arrested at his Columbia-owned student apartment by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), law enforcement officials for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Khalil, who was born in a refugee camp in Syria to Palestinian parents, is being threatened with deportation by the Trump administration, despite him being a green-card holder, granting him permanent legal residence in the US.
The day before his arrest, Khalil had emailed the Columbia interim president, Katrina Armstrong, expressing fear of his impending arrest and pleading for legal support from the university.
In the days following the detainment of Khalil, which has received significant national and international media attention, several students on the Trinity-Columbia dual BA programme have described the atmosphere on Columbia’s campus as “strange” and noted that many students and faculty have not spoken about the currently ongoing events whatsoever.
“It’s just strange walking around and not knowing how other people are feeling, and some people are so affected, and some people just aren’t. It honestly kind of makes me feel a bit like I’m living in a dream state, walking around and it not being mentioned.” noted a final year dual BA student.
Trinity and Columbia have offered a joint-BA programme for several years. Students on this four-year programme spend their first two years in Trinity and their final two years at Columbia, earning two bachelor’s degrees upon graduation, one from each university.
Students have reported that officials from ICE have been present on campus in the past week and that there have been raids carried out in students’ residences.
One dual BA student shared that an exam they had last Monday was made optional for students who were too afraid to come to campus, following the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil. Another student shared that they had multiple classes cancelled last week for the same reason.
“For a lot of the international students, they’re really worried about their visas being revoked.” the latter student said.
As for students who have had involvement in pro-Palestine protests on campus, there has been growing concern for the repercussions they may now face from the university, who has been ordered by the Trump administration to impose harsh disciplinary action on all involved students.
A number of students who took part in the occupation of the campus building Hamilton Hall last April, in protest of Columbia’s ties to Israel, were handed down severe sanctions from Columbia’s University Judicial Board (UBJ) last Thursday, with punishments consisting of multi-year suspensions, temporary degree revocations and expulsions.
Multiple interviewees who spoke to Trinity News reported that a number of students on the dual BA programme were included in the group sanctioned by the UBJ on Thursday, however Trinity News has been unable to independently verify these reports.
A spokesperson for Trinity stated that College has not received any communication at all from Columbia on the matter.
A third year dual BA student currently at Columbia, described the cancellation of funding and the university’s subsequent actions as “shocking and very disappointing.”
“I’ve said to my friends in the dual BA and we’ve expressed it to each other, we want to go back to Trinity. Obviously that’s not gonna happen. We’ve put too much weight in Columbia at this point. But I think it’s an enormous sense of betrayal” they continued.
When reached for comment on the current situation in Columbia, a spokesperson for Trinity said that they were in “ongoing contact with students on the Dual BA programme”
“We are always conscious of their welfare and wellbeing. The Dual BA programme remains in place.”
Two dual BA students currently studying in Columbia told Trinity News that they had not received any communication from Trinity regarding the current situation on campus
“I haven’t received any email and I do feel that there’s a responsibility. I do wonder if Trinity feels kind of like the junior partner in the relationship with Columbia, and doesn’t want to step on Columbia’s toes, but that’s silly and not a good reason. I’m still completing work for Trinity. I feel like they should be checking in.” A final year dual BA student said.
Charlotte Crean, a first year student on the dual BA programme who is Jewish, accused Columbia of collaborating with ICE, who she compared to the Gestapo.
“I have complete contempt for the administration at Columbia. I’ve had contempt for it since the way that they handled it first of all, that they have investments in Israel, and also the way that they handled protests, and now that they have actively engaged with, have collaborated with, and I’ll use this word, and I don’t mean it even lightly at all, the Gestapo.” Crean said
One second year dual BA student who is due to begin her studies in Columbia next semester expressed doubt as to whether she will continue on the programme as planned. Having grown up in Lebanon, she told Trinity News that her position on Columbia’s ties with Israel is “not a choice”.
“For me it’s an emotional matter to be living and working and studying in a university that wholeheartedly is hurting my people.”
“Yesterday night, Homeland Security came and searched people’s dorm rooms. It made me feel very much as though I’d be choosing, if I went to Columbia, between feeling as if I can stand by what I believe and what I want for the world, and then being successful with my degree.”
The Trump administration last week published a list of requirements that Columbia must meet in order to restore their cancelled federal funding.
These demands include that the university must place its Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies Department under academic receivership, which would place the department out of the control of faculty, along with implementing strict protest limitations on campus and centralising all disciplinary procedures to the university president.
As the circumstances in Columbia become increasingly authoritarian, a first year dual BA student in Trinity put it plainly: “How can I trust that my Columbia professors are telling their truth if every move of the university is monitored by a government that will punish the freedom of expression?”
Editor’s note: This article was updated on March 31 to anonymise a student who spoke to Trinity News, due to fears of repercussions.
