Trump intervention at Columbia alarms defenders of academic freedom | AP News https://apnews.com/article/columbia-university-mahmoud-khalil-ice-arrests-1921e26f6b5a8585ad5cbda790846324
#Trump demands unprecedented control at #ColumbiaUniversity, alarming scholars and speech groups
By COLLIN BINKLEY and JAKE OFFENHARTZ
Updated 7:52 PM EDT, March 14, 2025
NEW YORK (AP) — "The Trump administration brushed aside decades of precedent when it ordered Columbia University to oust the leadership of an academic department, a demand seen as a direct attack on academic freedom and a warning of what’s to come for other colleges facing federal scrutiny.
"Federal officials told the university it must immediately place its #MiddleEasternStudies, #SouthAsianStudies, and #AfricanStudies Department under 'academic receivership for a minimum of five years.' The demand was among several described as conditions for receiving federal funding, including $400 million already pulled over allegations of #antisemitism.
"Across #academia, it was seen as a stunning intrusion.
"'It’s an escalation of a kind that is unheard of,' said Joan Scott, a historian and member of the academic freedom committee of the American Association of University Professors [#AAUP]. 'Even during the #McCarthy period in the United States, this was not done.'"
https://apnews.com/article/columbia-university-mahmoud-khalil-ice-arrests-1921e26f6b5a8585ad5cbda790846324
#CharacteristicsOfFascism #USPol #Censorship #DumbingUsDown #Authoritarianism #SilencingDissent #AcademicFreedom #Fascism
France offers to take in #US scientists. Aix-Marseille University in the south of France is launching the Safe Place For Science program…for American researchers wishing to pursue their work free from persecution… the university says it is launching a scheme dedicated to welcoming those wishing to pursue their work "in an environment conducive to innovation, excellence, & #academicfreedom."’ | The Register https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/14/france_us_science_offer/
UC Davis, Yale, Columbia, and 57 others: List of 60 colleges and universities under investigation by Trump regime for trumped-up antisemitism claims:
https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/us-news/uc-davis-yale-and-columbia-list-of-60-colleges-and-universities-under-investigation-for-antisemitism-claims-101741743761547.html
#USPolitics #AcademicFreedom #AttackOnEducation #Trump #FascistTakeover #Universities #TuckersBalls
"Everything I focus on is now a banned word"
Global Collaboration and Academic Freedom
A commentary has been published on University World News following the discussion "Perspectives on Academic Freedom" at #OSICU2024 The article explores how international collaboration can help strengthen academic freedom.
Available here: https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20250311091253781
Histoire et enjeux de la liberté académique, menacée de toutes parts aujourd’hui : https://theconversation.com/liberte-academique-et-democratie-en-peril-comment-un-prix-nobel-de-la-paix-pourrait-les-defendre-251647
#ColumbiaUniversity Bent Over Backward to Appease #RightWing, #ProIsrael Attacks — And #Trump Still Cut #FederalFunding
Instead of #outrage, the school’s interim president responded to the cuts by vowing to continue its misguided crackdown.
by Natasha Lennard, March 8 2025
"Columbia University could hardly have been more draconian in the last year and a half since students began speaking out against Israel’s assault on #Gaza.
In early November 2023, four months before the Columbia #GazaSolidarity encampment even began, the university banned its chapters of #StudentsForJusticeInPalestine and #JewishVoiceForPeace. A few hundred students from the groups had had the audacity to walk out from classes and hold a “die-in” protest on campus — some of the most widely celebrated nonviolent protest tactics available.
"The crackdown was just getting started.
Since then, the university has ordered police raids on campus three times, leading to the arrests of over 100 students. Last week, the school expelled four students, three from #BarnardCollege one from Columbia. Many dozens of students have faced discipline and suspensions for participating in pro-Palestine protests and speech.
"Professors have been slandered before Congress, censured, removed from positions, and reportedly pushed into retirement over their support for Palestine and criticism of Israel. The campus has been essentially locked down for almost a year.
"Again and again, Columbia has shown a willingness to throw #students, #faculty, #FreeSpeech, and academic freedom under the bus in acquiescence to a #RightWing, #ProIsrael narrative that treats support for Palestinians as an affront to Jewish safety.
"For all Columbia’s #appeasement, President Donald Trump’s Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism announced last week that it would cancel $400 million in #FederalGrants and contracts to the university.
"'Columbia has worked overtime to appease,' wrote Layla, a student at Columbia’s School of Social Work, who asked to withhold her last name having faced doxxing attacks and harassment from Zionist groups. 'Students are miserable. Campus is a #panopticon. And their funding was still cut.'
"The Trump administration can be expected to use its perverted conception of antisemitism to further its explicit plans to decimate, #corporatize, and #ReWhiten #HigherEducation. The shame here lies with university leaderships — at Columbia and schools nationwide — that have failed to stand up for their purported missions of #CriticalThinking and #AcademicFreedom. Instead, they have put some of their most vulnerable community members, particularly international students and students of color, at risk.
"There is no appeasing a political force like the #TrumpianRight, intent on a program of destruction. And there is no appeasing a nationalist #Zionist worldview that, defying reason, sees #antisemitism in every call for #Palestinian freedom. Columbia is proof of the failure of caving in; the administration has offered up a platter of repression for more than a year and is still slated to lose $400 million."
Read more:
https://theintercept.com/2025/03/08/columbia-trump-funding-gaza-israel/
Archived version:
https://archive.ph/jrNva
#Fascism #Appeasement #FreePalestine #Gaza #RightToProtest #Censorship #Fascism #ICE #ACAB #Authoritarianism #USPol #FreeSpeech
As handbook editors and authors of this account it was and is always important to us to show #emdiplomacy in its diversity. This means different forms of #emdiplomacy in different European countries as well as different diplomatic actors. Therefore, we introduce you to black #emdiplomats last month.
Moreover, for us this also means giving researchers from different countries a voice: either by introducing you to their work or during the editing process by including them in the #handbook. For us this is fundamental and connected, because only by listening to different (academic and historical) voices we can understand the complexity of (historical and current) societies. But again, we can only do this, when we have academic freedom. (4/5)
Therefore, it is our duty as historians and academics to stand up for democracy, human rights and academic freedom. We cannot be silent and excuse ourselves by saying our research topics are purely historical, because we can only do our job properly in a democratic society that values academic freedom. (3/5)
#Pelatine-Israel / Ben-Gurion University condemns Government Censorship Laws while suspending Professor Ben Daniel for criticizing IDF
Ben-Gurion University has illegally suspended Dr. Sebastian Ben Daniel after 18 years of teaching computer science for criticizing #IDF actions in the occupied West Bank. His "crime"? Using the pseudonym "John Brown" on social media to condemn the killing of Palestinian civilians, including a pregnant woman and a 7-year-old child.
The right-wing organization "Im Tirtzu" orchestrated a pressure campaign, collecting 1,000+ student signatures demanding his firing. Shamefully, the university administration caved immediately, bypassing proper procedures and due process.
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel has condemned this as "a hasty and illegal suspension" that "represents another step in academia's abandonment of fundamental values of free expression." They note this is part of a broader attack on democratic institutions, with parliament simultaneously advancing legislation to restrict academic freedom.
Prof. Oded Goldreich (who faced similar persecution when ministers tried to block his Israel Prize) defended Ben Daniel: "A university lecturer who is also a journalist and citizen published his opinion on a public forum unrelated to the university. His opinion is based on humanistic moral principles and extensive knowledge, but it's very unacceptable to fascist silencing organizations."
This isn't about "protecting students' feelings" as the university claims. It's about silencing critical voices and establishing a dangerous precedent where right-wing pressure can dictate who can speak and teach.
[…] "Ben Daniel has been serving as a computer science lecturer in the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Ben-Gurion University for 18 years. Fourteen years ago, he began publishing criticism of Israel on social media (as well as in 'Haaretz' and other media outlets), alongside investigations on topics such as Military Police investigation files and arms trafficking. About three weeks ago, Ben Daniel referred to IDF activity in a refugee camp near Tulkarm where a Palestinian child was shot, writing, among other things: 'The IDF doesn't shoot at religious terrorists who attack civilians, but does murder a pregnant woman and a 7-year-old child because 'he looked at the ground,' not because of orders but because they were educated to murder Palestinian children.'"
Coverage in Hebrew:
https://www.haaretz.co.il/news/education/2025-03-07/ty-article/.premium/00000195-6ced-d46d-a3f7-eded22220000 or https://archive.is/2ujuA
@academicchatter
@israel
@palestine
#AcademicFreedom
#FreeSpeech
Kafka comes to CUNY - Democratic governor Kathy Hochul blocks a job ad for a professorship in Palestinian studies because it was hateful and antisemitic. This blog was modified and featured in the Chronicle of Higher Education, and is written by a Jewish scholar worried about academic freedom. Well, more than worried.
#Palestine
#NewYork
#HunterCollege
#CUNY
#AcademicFreedom
#ProIsraelLobby
La tribune du relai Français du mouvement a été publiée dans le monde:
Petition calls on Finnish universities to oppose US attempts to censor use of terms such as equality, climate change
The chancellor of the University of Helsinki told a newspaper last month that US authorities had pressured the university to remove certain terms from its press release about Fulbright scholarships.
Science must remain free from political control.Update. "ALLEA Statement on Threats to Academic Freedom and International Research Collaboration in the United States"
https://allea.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/ALLEA-Statement-on-Threats-to-Academic-Freedom.pdf
"The European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities expresses grave concern over the escalating threats to academic freedom, both in the United States and beyond. Recent developments regarding science and scholarship in the U.S., including executive orders freezing billions in federal research funding and censorship around topics such as climate change and gender, are forcing many U.S. science agencies and research organisations to abruptly suspend normal operations. Such censorship and political suppression of language, research topics, and methodologies—whether through funding restrictions, legislative control, or institutional interference—fundamentally compromise the integrity of scientific and scholarly endeavours not just in the U.S. but around the world due to the global nature of the research ecosystem."
"I think war crimes should be prosecuted regardless of who commits them."
That's a statement that could result in my residency revoked and deportation from Israel if a new law introduced into the Knesset passes.
And no scholar who has said such a thing would be admitted into the country either.
This is just one part of a four-part bill intended to silence dissent. The bill would also make it illegal for anyone to cooperate with any ICC or ICJ investigation against Israel for genocide or crimes against humanity.
Read more from my colleague Itamar Mann here: https://verfassungsblog.de/criminalizing-knowledge/
COPE -The Committee on Publication Ethics issued a position on Trump's banning of words:
"This position is a response to concerns raised regarding prohibition of specific terminology, and restrictions on researchers’ activities and collaborations. COPE considers that authors and editors are best placed to determine the appropriate language to be used in their respective fields, to ensure that research is communicated appropriately."
#US / Harvard Divinity School administrators resign citing university's tolerance of anti-muslim bias and attacks on pro-Palestinian voices
Two administrators at Harvard Divinity School's Religion and Public Life program have resigned, citing the university's failure to address a hostile environment towards Muslims and those critical of Israel.
Hussein Rashid, the assistant dean, explicitly accused Harvard of tolerating racist and defamatory statements against the program, particularly from Jewish groups like Hillel and #Chabad.
[…] He cited as an example an Instagram post by Harvard Chabad, led by Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi, that said: “There are numerous Harvard academic centers that essentially function as Hamas or Palestinian embassies,” citing the Religion in Public Life center “in its entirety,” and concluding, “it’s stunning that there’s no call for some of these centers to be shut down or rebuilt in its entirety.”
@israel
@palestine
@academicchatter
#IsraelOccupation
#IsraelWarCrimes
#Islamophobia
#AcademicFreedom
"Instead of asking whether science should be political,
we should ask how politics can be more scientific." - Lancet Infectious Diseases editorial
