March 18, 2025

By Errol Louis 

The Alma Mater statue at Columbia University. Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

The leaders of America’s top universities should have realized long ago that no amount of cowering and capitulation or attempts to hide will save them from the attack being unleashed and orchestrated by the Trump administration. It seems the leaders of these fine institutions do not understand the crude and lawless nature of their opponents or the focused, all-out war on higher education that the White House and its allies have launched.

Like many New Yorkers, I am baffled and dismayed by Columbia University’s meek acceptance of the outrageous, bullying announcementfrom the Department of Justice, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Education, and the U.S. General Services Administration that the White House intends to snatch back $400 million in federal research money based on what the administration called “continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students,” an alleged violation of civil-rights law. For good measure, the letter warned that “these cancellations represent the first round of action and additional cancellations are expected to follow.”

Required Reading for Political Compulsives

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