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\u2019d flooded Columbia\u2019s lawns just over a year ago, camping out for two weeks straight while spurring similar demonstrations nationwide. A year of protests, and now the Trump administration\u2019s response to them, have shaken New York City\u2019s 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\u2019s 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. Other big universities, like Harvard, have mounted legal challenges against the Trump administration\u2019s 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. \u201cColumbia\u2019s mascot deserves a new name, the cowardly Lion,\u201d Michael Thaddeus, a mathematics professor and vice president of the university\u2019s chapter of the American Association of University Professors, jeered at a recent rally of dozens of professors from city universities at Foley Square. Residents of Morningside Heights surrounding the campus are feeling the fallout as well. Before last spring, Columbia\u2019s 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. \u201cIt\u2019s one of those things that many people didn\u2019t really appreciate until they didn\u2019t have it,\u201d 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. \u201cBut it\u2019s as if they closed the whole section of Central Park and you lived across from the park. It\u2019s been an ongoing inconvenience.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n Q: What is the current situation at Columbia University? 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":16907,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16906","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thecity.nyc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/041825_columbia_university_security_2-scaled.jpg?w=1920&resize=1920,1280&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/new-york\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16906"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/new-york\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/new-york\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/new-york\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/new-york\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16906"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/new-york\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16908,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/new-york\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16906\/revisions\/16908"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/new-york\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/new-york\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/new-york\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/new-york\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nStudent protesters continued to occupy part of Columbia University, April 23, 2024. Credit:<\/span> Alex Krales\/THE CITY<\/span>
\nAmong the supporters this April was 23-year-old Maryam Alwan, a Palestinian-American comparative literature student fast approaching graduation who\u2019d 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.<\/p>\nEverything Is Hardened<\/h2>\n
\n\u201cThey turned it into a fortress. Everything is hardened,\u201d 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. \u201cIt feels kind of dead to me now.\u201d
\nAn entrance to Columbia University was padlocked a year after pro-Palestine protests shut down the campus, April 18, 2025. Credit:<\/span> Alex Krales\/THE CITY<\/span>
\nOver 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\u2019s beliefs constitute a national security threat and aren\u2019t protected by the First Amendment because he isn\u2019t a citizen. Last week, Khalil missed the birth of his first son.<\/p>\nThe Darkest Chapter<\/h2>\n
\nColumbia University mathematics professor Michael Thaddeus joined a protest in Lower Manhattan against the Trump administration\u2019s attempts to deport students, April 17, 2025. Credit:<\/span> Ben Fractenberg\/THE CITY<\/span>
\nThe union, rather than the university itself, has sued the Trump Administration on behalf of faculty over funding cuts. \u201cNo one feels more attached to Columbia University than I do,\u201d Thaddeus said, going on to note he was born and raised in Morningside Heights and had taught at Columbia for almost 30 years. \u201cI\u2019m proud of the great things Columbia\u2019s faculty and students have accomplished in its 271 year history,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cthe last month has been the darkest chapter in that history.\u201d<\/p>\nA Hard Ask<\/h2>\n
\nColumbia University lecturer Robert Newton took part in a Lower Manhattan protest against President Donald Trump, April 17, 2025. Credit:<\/span> Ben Fractenberg\/THE CITY<\/span>
\nNewton 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. \u201cIt\u2019s easy to be angry at the Columbia administration, which you\u2019d have to say has been at best feckless in trying to defend the university, but the animus here is from Washington,\u201d he said.<\/p>\nConclusion<\/h2>\n
FAQs<\/h2>\n
\nA: 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.
\nQ: What are the students and faculty demanding?
\nA: 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.
\nQ: How has the university responded to the crisis?
\nA: 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.
\nQ: What are the consequences of the university’s response?
\nA: 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.
\nQ: What is the future of Columbia University?
\nA: 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"