Katrina Armstrong resigned as the interim president of Columbia University on Friday, only one week after she published a letter announcing that the university would comply with federal demands to overhaul its Middle East studies programs and expand campus policing.
Armstrong's resignation and Columbia's contentious policy changes come after two months of rising tensions with the Trump administration over pro-Palestinian activism and antisemitism on campus, including a $400 million cut to research funding.
The demands include banning facemasks during protests, expanding campus police powers, revising disciplinary procedures and most controversially, appointing a Vice Provost to lead a comprehensive review of the University's Middle East programs.
Student protesters gather inside their encampment on the Columbia University campus, April 29, 2024, in New York.Credit: Stefan Jeremiah,AP
This would involve centers and institutes with a specific focus on Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies departments (MESAAS), effectively placing these programs under academic receivership and exposing them to external oversight.
The mandate includes everything from hiring and firing to approval of education material, all aimed at "ensuring the offerings are comprehensive and balanced."
But this demand didn't come from within Columbia's administration. It's coming from the Trump White House, which is unprecedented. It also comes as the administration threatens sixty universities with federal funding cuts over "antisemitic harassment."
Usually, receivership is an internal mechanism, a rare step universities take when a department spirals into dysfunction. Administrators might impose it to restore order after prolonged turmoil.
Last week, U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said Columbia University is "on the right track." But academics at Columbia see it as an unprecedented intrusion into university affairs.
Pro-Palestinian protestors demonstrate at Washington Square Park in New York City on March 11, 2025.Credit: AFP/ANGELA WEISS
Professor Sheldon Pollock, former chair of the MESAAS department at Columbia and a South Asia scholar, compared Columbia yielding to the Trump administration demands is like giving in to extortion. "When a thug demands you pay protection money and you pay, you will continue to pay until the thug is gone or your store is burned to the ground," Pollock said to Haaretz.
"The correct answer – both for the sake of Columbia University and for the American university tout court – was to seek judicial relief from the federal government's plainly illegal rescissions and threats," he added.
Pollock pointed to a recent academic review of MESAAS by Columbia's top Arts and Sciences committee. "The review was highly positive," he said. "MESAAS thus already demonstrates fairness and excellence unless of course, as all of us who have been paying attention know, any criticism of Israel's state policies on the part of its professors makes a department unfair and un-excellent."
Joel Beinin, a historian of the Middle East and professor emeritus at Stanford, said although it is tempting to see the latest attack on American academia as a new, Trump-era move, it is part of a longer-running attack on higher education.
Students march outside Columbia's campus to protest the university's concessions to the federal government and call for divestment from Israel and the release of Mahmoud Khalil, at Columbia University in New York City, U.S., March.Credit: Dana Edwards/ REUTERS
He said the U.S. administration's reaction to academia's opposition to Israel's war in Gaza mirrors its prior response to academic opposition to the U.S. invasion of Iraq. "There was a huge assault on universities from neoconservatives at the time. Consequently, they gave up on universities as sources of information and shifted to think tanks they could ideologically control," he said.
Robert Newton, a long-time Columbia professor and member of the executive board of the American Association of University Professors, said the impact of this move extends far beyond the Middle East department.
"We don't yet know how this will look in practice, but it marks a break from more than a century of academic norms and shared governance, traditions that were further solidified after the campus protests of 1968 and 1969," Newton told Haaretz.
"It seems Washington is more focused on damaging Columbia as an institution, impacting not only Middle Eastern students but research departments that advance important research on cancer, rather than making real changes," he added.
Not addressing the issues
Columbia University's Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies has long been a prominent hub for scholarship on the region. Edward Said, the renowned professor of English and Comparative Literature, was not a member of the department, but helped shape its intellectual landscape, drawing scholars of the Middle East to Columbia, including the writer and historian Rashid Khalidi, who recently retired.
MESAAS has long been a flash point in Columbia's campus politics, and tensions rose after October 7, with some professors in the department perceived as supporting the Hamas attack. Professor Joseph Massad, for example, published a column on October 8th, 2023, calling the Hamas assault a "stunning victory of the Palestinian resistance over the Israeli military."
A petition demanding Massad's removal gathered more than 47,000 signatures, though he remained in his position.
Demonstrators gather on the day of a hearing on the detention of Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, outside the Federal Courthouse in Newark, New Jersey, U.S., March.Credit: Eduardo Munoz/ REUTERS
Other professors in the department have been targeted by pro-Israel activists and groups like Canary Mission and Campus Watch, which operate in a coordinated effort to blacklist and expose students and professors who are critical of Israeli policies.
Pollock pushes back on the university being an anti-Israel hotbed. "Columbia already has some 15 distinguished scholars of Jewish and Israeli literature, art, religion, history," he said. "It is hard to miss the point in the document by the administration: Those scholars are not vociferous enough in support of the current government of the State of Israel, and we need to continue to fine tune the academic machinery until that uncritical voice is loud and clear."
The Trump administration cited Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to justify these measures, accusing the school of failing to protect students from antisemitic harassment. But a group of Columbia law professors argued that the move itself violates Title VI and the Constitution.
The letter sent by the admin, they said, lacks due process, sidesteps required procedures, and imposes sweeping and vague demands – such as restructuring academic departments. Even conservative scholars argued these measures are likely illegal.
Demonstrators wear flags as they attend a march after protesting in Timers Square, following the arrest by U.S. immigration agents of Palestinian student protester Mahmoud Khalil at Columbia University, in New York City, U.S., March.Credit: Eduardo Munoz/ REUTERS
Newton, who teaches at Columbia's climate school and is Jewish, said that while the protests can be intense, the administration acted quickly and took serious disciplinary steps. "The administration did what it could. It arrested students during the encampment, changed guidelines, and after investigating, expelled, suspended, and withheld diplomas," he said.
"This was never about keeping Jewish students safe. Slashing research funding for cancer research or placing professors under review does nothing to address the issues the administration claims are antisemitism," said Newton.
Advocacy VS. Academia
While Columbia's yielding to administration demands was welcomed by some Jewish organizations, scholars, and Jewish groups on campus, it has alarmed others who see this as an unprecedented step in curbing free speech, academic freedom, and moving towards authoritarianism.
"The decision is a tremendous blow to academic freedom and to the autonomy of institutions of higher education. We must hope that other universities will not follow Columbia in acquiescing to Trump's campaign to subordinate higher education to his authoritarian ideological agenda," said Zachary Lockman, a professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic studies at NYU.
A few days later, Harvard University removed the directors of its Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Cemal Kafadar and Rosie Bsheer. While no official reason was given, the move is widely seen as a concession to alumni groups and others accusing the center of "antisemitism" and sidelining "Israeli perspectives."
The university has also moved to distance itself from Palestine more broadly, with the School of Public Health suspending its research partnership with Birzeit University in the West Bank.
These preemptive moves reflect a strategy some elite universities are adopting: Adjusting or slashing programs to shield themselves from political pressure. It offers a glimpse into how the field of Middle Eastern studies is being reshaped by non-academic forces.
Lila Corwin Berman, director of NYU's Center for American Jewish History, warned that the move echoes patterns from the past with consequences that extend far beyond campus politics.
Columbia and Barnard faculty stage a protest and press conference to condemn the university's concessions to the federal government and call for a defense of academic freedom and democracy at Columbia University in New York City, U.S. March 24, 2025. REUTERS/Dana EdwardsCredit: Dana Edwards/ REUTERS
"From history, we learn that free societies require free universities. This does not put universities above critique. In fact, universities are often in the crosshairs of social and political upheaval because they prize vigorous debate and free inquiry," she told Haaretz. "But governments that seek to control knowledge or use it as a weapon to silence ideas endanger freedom for all."
Tamir Sorek, an Israeli-born professor who teaches Middle East history at Penn State, said the Trump administration isn't merely seeking disciplinary action – it is targeting the university system itself. He points to Vice President JD Vance calling universities 'the enemy.' "It is about silencing dissenting voices," Sorek told Haaretz.
Sorek tied the receivership of Columbia's Middle East studies department to a larger international trend. "The administration is consolidating an international coalition of authoritarian regimes and far-right parties – from Putin and Orbán to fascist movements in Western Europe," he said. "Israel has become an honored member of this club and shielding it from criticism by exerting control over Middle East studies is part of the same project."
Students stage a walk-out protest at Columbia University's Low Library steps to condemn the presence of U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement agents on campus and call for the release of Mahmoud Khalil in New York City, U.S., March 11, 2025.Credit: DANA EDWARDS/ REUTERS
"Figures like [Donald] Trump and [Elon] Musk, along with others in their orbit, have a documented history of Nazi salutes or offensive statements about Jews," he said. "By invoking the fight against antisemitism as a pretext for tightening their grip on power, they aim to strip the term of its meaning."
Sorek added that the situation is made more troubling by the silence – or complicity – of some Jewish institutions. "Tragically, some Jewish organizations in the U.S. have prioritized advocacy for Israel over the fight against antisemitism, thereby supporting this assault on academic freedom."
Newton said the response should come from faculty nationwide. "Columbia is the first. But it won't be the last. If we don't fight this together – not just from different universities, but all departments and disciplines – we risk losing higher education as a space not only for critical thought and debate, but for research and discovery."