Columbia Vows to Reject Any Trump Deal That Erodes Its Independence

Columbia University, which has faced criticism for not striking a more defiant stand against efforts by the Trump administration to set its agenda, showed signs late Monday of adopting a tougher tone. In a note sent to the campus, the acting president pledged that the school would not allow the federal government to “require us to relinquish our independence and autonomy.”

The message came less than 12 hours after Harvard became the first university to refuse to comply with the administration’s demands, prompting federal officials to freeze $2.2 billion in multiyear grants to the school. The letter was sent to students and faculty members as Columbia has endured intense fire for what critics regard as White House appeasement.

Until now, Columbia had largely avoided public criticism of the administration and its campaign against universities. In her first public statement, in March, Claire Shipman, Columbia’s new acting president, acknowledged that the university faced “a precarious moment,” but she did not directly mention federal officials or their cancellation of about $400 million in grants and contracts to the school.

And when Ms. Shipman’s predecessor, Katrina Armstrong, revealed an agreement regarding major demands from the government — including placing the university’s Middle Eastern studies department under new oversight and creating a security force empowered to make arrests — she did not critique the administration’s interference in higher education.

But on Monday, Ms. Shipman — who said that she had read a strongly worded note from Harvard president’s “with great interest” — appeared to adopt a new tone, the most robust sign of potential pushback from Columbia’s leadership since the government’s cancellation of federal funding to the university.

Ms. Shipman wrote that Columbia would “reject heavy-handed orchestration from the government that could potentially damage our institution and undermine useful reforms.” She said that any agreement in which federal officials dictated “what we teach, research, or who we hire” would be unacceptable.

Still, Ms. Shipman did not go as far as Harvard’s president, Alan Garber, who categorically refused to stand down, writing on Monday that the federal government had sought to “invade university freedoms long recognized by the Supreme Court” and that the institution would not concede to “demands that go beyond the lawful authority of this or any administration.”