Introduction to the Crisis
On a recent spring afternoon, a handful of former and current Columbia students chained themselves to the locked campus gates while demanding that the university cut ties with Israel and companies profiting off of its war in Gaza. A small crowd cheered on the direct action, but the whole gathering was modest in size compared to the sea of students who’d flooded Columbia’s lawns just over a year ago, camping out for two weeks straight while spurring similar demonstrations nationwide.
Student protesters continued to occupy part of Columbia University, April 23, 2024. Credit: Alex Krales/THE CITY
Among the supporters this April was 23-year-old Maryam Alwan, a Palestinian-American comparative literature student fast approaching graduation who’d played a key role in the campus demonstrations a year earlier. Her close friend Mahmoud Khalil is now being held in a jail in Louisiana as the government seeks his deportation, part of a crackdown by the Trump administration on pro-Palestinian protesters, targeting Columbia especially, that has driven some non-citizen students students into hiding.
Everything Is Hardened
A year of protests, and now the Trump administration’s response to them, have shaken New York City’s only Ivy League university to its core. An institution which had just 24 presidents, including acting ones, between 1754 and 2019, is now on its third president and second acting one since 2023. The university has struggled to respond to pro-Palestinian student protesters and demands from House Republicans and now the Trump administration that it do more to crack down on them for disrupting campus life and alleged antisemitism. The school’s once open main campus has been blocked off to the public for more than a year. International students have feared attending classes in person lest they get picked off by ICE, while a newly-deputized campus police force is now empowered to detain and arrest students.
“They turned it into a fortress. Everything is hardened,” said Jonathan Ben-Menachem, a PhD student in sociology, who is part of the student worker union that was involved in organizing efforts last year. “It feels kind of dead to me now.”
An entrance to Columbia University was padlocked a year after pro-Palestine protests shut down the campus, April 18, 2025. Credit: Alex Krales/THE CITY
Over the past month and a half, at least three current and former noncitizen student activists have been detained and are being held in ICE custody: Khalil, Mohsen Mahdawi and Leqaa Kordia. None has been charged with any crime. The Trump administration is arguing in legal filings that Khalil’s beliefs constitute a national security threat and aren’t protected by the First Amendment because he isn’t a citizen. Last week, Khalil missed the birth of his first son.
The Darkest Chapter
Other big universities, like Harvard, have mounted legal challenges against the Trump administration’s threats to pull federal funding, and some like Tufts have denounced the abduction of its students by federal authorities. Columbia, though, quickly acquiesced to a number of Trump administration demands as it began cutting off federal funding to the university. Even more jarring, students and faculty members said that the university has yet to mention Khalil or any of the other detained or targeted non-citizen students by name in more than a month since his arrest. “Columbia’s mascot deserves a new name, the cowardly Lion,” Michael Thaddeus, a mathematics professor and vice president of the university’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors, jeered at a recent rally of dozens of professors from city universities at Foley Square.
Columbia University mathematics professor Michael Thaddeus joined a protest in Lower Manhattan against the Trump administration’s attempts to deport students, April 17, 2025. Credit: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
The union, rather than the university itself, has sued the Trump Administration on behalf of faculty over funding cuts. “No one feels more attached to Columbia University than I do,” Thaddeus said, going on to note he was born and raised in Morningside Heights and had taught at Columbia for almost 30 years. “I’m proud of the great things Columbia’s faculty and students have accomplished in its 271 year history,” he said, adding, “the last month has been the darkest chapter in that history.”
A Hard Ask
Residents of Morningside Heights surrounding the campus are feeling the fallout as well. Before last spring, Columbia’s campus, lawns and gardens were open to the surrounding neighbors, via a cut through on 116th street known as College Walk. The campus has been blocked off to the public almost entirely for the past year. For some residents that means a walk twice as long to get to the nearest 1 train subway stop on 116th street, which is a major disruptor for people with mobility issues. “It’s one of those things that many people didn’t really appreciate until they didn’t have it,” said Toby Golick, a lawyer who lives nearby and is representing a group of her neighbors in a state lawsuit urging the university to reopen its gates. “But it’s as if they closed the whole section of Central Park and you lived across from the park. It’s been an ongoing inconvenience.”
Columbia University lecturer Robert Newton took part in a Lower Manhattan protest against President Donald Trump, April 17, 2025. Credit: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
Newton joined dozens of faculty members from Columbia, CUNY, NYU, the New School in marching from Washington Square Park to Foley Square on a recent afternoon to call for the release of detained students and the restoration of academic funding. “It’s easy to be angry at the Columbia administration, which you’d have to say has been at best feckless in trying to defend the university, but the animus here is from Washington,” he said.
Conclusion
The situation at Columbia University is complex and multifaceted, with the Trump administration’s actions causing widespread concern among students, faculty, and the local community. The university’s response to the protests and the administration’s demands has been criticized by many, with some feeling that it has not done enough to support its students and defend academic freedom. As the situation continues to unfold, it remains to be seen how the university and the administration will respond to the ongoing crisis.
FAQs
Q: What is the current situation at Columbia University?
A: The university is facing a crisis due to the Trump administration’s actions, including the detention of non-citizen student activists and the cutting off of federal funding.
Q: What are the students and faculty demanding?
A: They are demanding that the university cut ties with Israel and companies profiting off of its war in Gaza, and that the administration release the detained students and restore academic funding.
Q: How has the university responded to the crisis?
A: The university has acquiesced to some of the Trump administration’s demands, including expelling students involved in the occupation of Hamilton Hall and hiring special officers to remove individuals from campus and/or arrest them.
Q: What are the consequences of the university’s response?
A: The consequences include the detention of non-citizen student activists, the cutting off of federal funding, and the restriction of access to the campus for international students and the local community.
Q: What is the future of Columbia University?
A: The future of the university is uncertain, but it is clear that the current crisis has had a significant impact on the university and its community.
