Columbia University students return to campus after sweeping policy changes to restore funding
Columbia professors also rallied against the university's concessions to Trump on Monday
MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS, Manhattan (WABC) -- Students at Columbia University returned to class Monday, for the first time since the institution gave in to the Trump administration's demands to restore hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding.
The university was stripped of $400 million in federal grants earlier this month.
This follows the last academic year as the campus became the epicenter of demonstrations, encampment protests and counter-protests. The university announced changes in disciplinary policies, will restrict protests, ban masks, sanction student groups in violation and review its Middle East studies programs and admissions.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the moves are to "ensure that children on campus are safe."
"Columbia has agreed to about nine things we put in place," she said. "She wanted to make sure there was no discrimination of any kind. She wanted to address any systemic issues that were identified relative to the antisemitism on campus and they have worked very hard in a very short period of time."
In between lectures and office hours on Monday, Columbia professors spoke out against the school administration.
They are angry that the university agreed to change certain policies in accordance with demands made by the Trump administration.
"Making these changes would allow an overbearing government to bully our university. They opened the door to political influence over who we teach, what we teach, how we teach, and even who is teaching" said Michael Thaddeus, professor of mathematics at Columbia and Vice President of the Columbia chapter of the American Association of University Professors.
In exchange, the Trump administration will consider returning the $400 million in funding that it had pulled in early March. Much of that money went into scientific research.
"Trump's cuts kill teaching and learning. They kill research, they kill knowledge, they kill truth, and they kill people. So we are asking who will stand with us and fight?" said Mia Mclvor, Executive Director of the American Association of University Professors, also known as AAUP.
The White House withheld the money because it said Columbia failed to protect Jewish students on campus during last year's anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian protests.
One speaker questioned the president's real motive.
"We know that this has nothing to do with opposing anti-Semitism. We know that this is about control," said Kimberly Phillips-Fein, Robert Gardiner-Kenneth T. Jackson Professor of History, Columbia University.
A Columbia University spokesperson released a statement on Monday, saying in part, "The actions and ongoing work that Columbia has committed to undertake will make our university a better, stronger place free of all forms of discrimination," and added, "We appreciate the ongoing dialogue with our regulators, and their willingness to engage with Columbia constructively and with the university's future in mind."
"We must find ways to ensure that every student on campus feels safe and secure, but also free to express their political point of view. And that's really hard. But that's the job," Tim Fry, professor of political science at Columbia said.
Faculty members don't want the government dictating how they do that and are worried it's a slippery slope.
The developments come on the heels of Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil's detainment in Louisiana as the government quietly added new accusations.
Khalil is accused of willingly failing to disclose his membership in several organizations including a U.N. agency that helps Palestinian refugees, and Syria Office of the British Embassy in Beruit, when he applied to become a permanent U.S. resident last March.
His lawyers call these new charges, "meritless."
The government previously argued he should be deported to help prevent the spread of antisemitism.
Meanwhile, a new lawsuit filed against President Trump, accuses his administration of using immigration enforcement to suppress speech.
That lawsuit is from another Columbia student protestor, who says ICE searched her dorm after she participated in the Barnard sit-in earlier this month, and that her status as a legal permanent resident of the U.S. has been revoked.
She claims she's had that status since she and her parents moved to the U.S., from South Korea, when she was 7 years old.
----------
* Get Eyewitness News Delivered
* Download the abc7NY app for breaking news alerts
Submit a tip or story idea to Eyewitness News
Have a breaking news tip or an idea for a story we should cover? Send it to Eyewitness News using the form below. If attaching a video or photo, terms of use apply.
