Columbia University approved a list of demands submitted by US President Donald Trump for the negotiations for its federal re -financing of $ 400 million, which was canceled last month.

Among other concessions, the university agreed to ban the masks of confronting and enable 36 university campus officers with special powers to arrest students.

An elderly elderly person will also be installed to supervise the Ministry of Middle East, South Asia, Africa and the Center for Palestinian Studies.

So what happened and what did Colombia agree to do it?

Why did the United States government submit the demands of Colombia?

Last year, the school was a major center during a wave of protests on the campus that swept the United States Israel’s war on Gaza Rising. On April 30, it occupied a group of students, employees and graduates Hamilton HallAcademic building on the campus in Colombia, before it was forcibly cleared by the New York Police at the request of the university leadership.

The Trump administration followed a strict approach to those involved in the demonstrations last year, which pledged in its first week to deport the students concerned. Earlier this month, it canceled federal funding in Colombia and issued a list of demands that the university must approve before re -financing.

This month, a student of Colombia Mahmoud Khalil29, who played a major role in organizing pro-events protests, was arrested from his university residence in the Upper Manhattan in New York by ICE and Customs Enforcement agents (ICE) who said that they would perform his green card-permanent residence-after an order from the Ministry of State.

“It is an honor for me to be granted a visa to live and study in the United States of America. When you defend violence and terrorism, the privilege must be canceled, and it should not be in this country,” Interior Security Security Security said in a press statement on the arrest.

On March 10, the American authorities sent a letter to 60 academic institutions, including Colombia, who informed them that they were under investigation of “anti -discrimination and discrimination” harassment and warning them of possible law enforcement procedures if he did not “protect Jews.” The message also threatened more discounts in financing. In response, Colombia said it was Disburgical, suspension or cancellation of grades One of the students participating in the Hamilton Hall profession.

In a deadline for Colombia to fulfill the rest of the government’s demands that approached Friday night, the university sent a new memorandum to the American administration, saying it also agreed to it. Critics say this step can mainly change academic freedom and the right to freedom of expression in the United States.

What did Colombia agree to do it?

In her memo to the Trump administration on Friday night, Colombia University has included the new rules and policies that will now be applied on the campus and have made plans to reform its disciplinary operations.

Facial masks will be banned, demonstrators will be required to identify themselves, and security personnel who have special powers will be appointed to arrest students, and departments that offer courses in the Middle East will be reviewed and supervised by an elderly person.

The Trump administration called for the school to put the Middle Eastern Studies Department in South Asia and African in the “Academic Guard” for a period of five years – a step that the university administration can take to control a department, which considers it as a dysfunction away from faculty members.

In the memo, the university said: “All these steps were ongoing and aimed at increasing the basic mission of Colombia: providing a safe and prosperous environment for research and education while maintaining our commitment to academic freedom and institutional integrity.”

In the period before the deadline on Friday to meet the government’s demands, the American media reported that Colombia’s secretaries were gathering behind closed doors for several days, with some members of the board of directors, “We are very concerned that the university is circulating its moral authority and academic independence for federal funds,” while others said that the school has limited options, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Agreement on demands does not guarantee the return of federal funds. The Trump administration said that meeting its demands was just a “prior condition for official negotiations.”

A new letter to Colombia from Trump lists the demands of “the ongoing financial relationship” with the United States government “:

—Spend or expelling students to protest against Hamilton Hall
– “Time, place and method”
– Block Mask
Distinguishing “Zionism’s Entity”
Acceptance of reform
-more pic.twitter.com/djcc31vQ2Q

– Prem Thakker (@prem_thakker) March 14, 2025

How did activists and academics respond?

Critics say that the government’s demands are far exceeding traditional compliance or behavior policies and that they rise to an attempt to strangle the supporting voices of the Palestinian.

Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive Director of Democracy in the Arab world now (Dawn), said that these conditions amount to political control over how universities work, and what he is studying and those who allow them to speak.

She emphasized the danger of this federal transgression, saying that Colombia’s compliance with these demands “will determine a terrible precedent and implement academic freedom throughout the United States.”

“We have not been unprecedented in the history of the United States. We have seen such a unbridled attack on American civil society, including our constitutional freedoms and our protection,” Whitson told Al -Jazeera.

According to her, the worst thing that universities can do now is “stay calm and believe they will not be the next.” She added that compliance with the government’s demands “will open the door for identical measures against every other university in the country.”

She said that the future of the academic discourse itself is now at stake.

She said: “The mission of the central leadership of these attacks is first and foremost to silence not only speech, but even studying Palestinian rights and history.” “It comes to creating an environment where universities can only teach content that a specific administration considers acceptable.”

Tariq Kenny-Shawa, the American policy colleague in the Shinaka: described the Palestine Policy Network, the administration’s move as “completely ridiculous” and added that the university “sells effectively its legitimacy and independence as an academic institution.”

“For an administration, it is supposed to be very dedicated to reducing the influence of the federal government on the special affairs of everything from universities to women’s bodies, to interfer now on university behavior matters, is a clear example of authoritarian transgression,” said Kenny Xiaa Al Jazeera.

He said that the Trump administration and its supporters supporting Israel “are losing the debate about Israel” on the campus of universities and are forcing them to close the discussions completely.

“There is no doubt that Trump applies a template that his administration will use against anyone who opposes his extreme right -wing agenda,” he said. “But it is very important to highlight that this is the deliberate targeting of those who defend Palestinian rights and criticize Israel.”

Professor Jonathan Zimmerman, a Colombia graduate and education historian now at the University of Pennsylvania, told Reuters that “a sad day for the university.” He said: “Historically, there is no precedent for this. The government uses funds as a state to the university administration.”

This step can be said to be “the greatest incursion into academic freedom, freedom of expression and institutional independence that we have seen since the McCarthy era. It puts a terrible precedent. “

Will students be deported?

The government is certainly making efforts to do so, but it will face legal challenges.

In recent weeks, agents reports have resulted in the enforcement of immigration and customs (ICE) who appear on the campus to the instability of many groups, and the call groups say that the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil is part of a wider pattern to target demonstrators. Khalil, a permanent resident in the United States and his eight -year -old American wife, was placed in the detention of immigration, first in New York, and then Louisiana. The Trump administration said it plans to strip him of its green card.

Khalil has launched a legal challenge, on the pretext that the efforts made to deport him violate his rights to freedom of expression and due legal procedures, which are guaranteed under the constitution of the United States. This week, a federal court unacceptable Trump’s attempt to reject the case.

Judge Jesse Fernman wrote in his ruling: “These are serious allegations and arguments, which, undoubtedly, calls for an accurate review by a legal court; the basic constitutional principle of that all persons in the United States are entitled to obtain a legal law student,” Judge Jesse Fernman wrote in his ruling.

Last week, a student of a student at the Second Colombia University, Leqa Kordia, was Arrest She was accused of bypassing her F-1 student visa. She was detained by ice agents and detained for deportation. Another foreign student, Rangani Srinifasan in India, canceled the student’s visa to participate “in activities that support Hamas”, which are spelling errors of the Palestinian Armed Group Hamas.

Earlier this week, government agents detained Badar Khan Suri, a post -Indian doctorate colleague at the Prince Alwaleeed Bin Al -Talal Center in George Town. On Wednesday, he said on Wednesday that he is being held in Louisiana for his deportation to “spreading enthusiasm and promoting anti -Semitism” on social media.

Khaled Elginy, a visiting researcher in Georgetown, who focuses on the Palestinian affairs of Israel, said that enforcement efforts appear to be an “different world with this issue”, and extends beyond the protest activity.

He said: “It seems that this person is targeted, not for his activity, but simply on suspicion that he carries some opinions.”

Legal efforts to prevent universities from sharing information about students with the government is underway.

Earlier this week, the American boycott court for the southern region of New York granted the Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR) a legal judicial order preventing Colombia from sharing students’ information with federal agencies without due legal procedures. This ruling comes amid increasing concerns that universities may be pressured to deliver sensitive data on students, especially those from Muslim or Arab backgrounds.