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There were protests, arrests, the departure of the school’s president. Then, a new administration arrived in Washington.
March 12, 2025, 2:58 p.m. ET
Days after immigration officers arrested a prominent pro-Palestinian campus activist, administrators at Columbia University gathered students and faculty from the journalism school and issued a warning.
Students who were not U.S. citizens should avoid publishing work on Gaza, Ukraine and protests related to their former classmate’s arrest, urged Stuart Karle, a First Amendment lawyer and adjunct professor. With about two months to go before graduation, their academic accomplishments — or even their freedom — could be at risk if they attracted the ire of the Trump administration.
“If you have a social media page, make sure it is not filled with commentary on the Middle East,” he told the gathering in Pulitzer Hall. When a Palestinian student objected, the journalism school’s dean, Jelani Cobb, was more direct about the school’s inability to defend international students from federal prosecution.
“Nobody can protect you,” Mr. Cobb said. “These are dangerous times.”
For the past two academic years, student protests against the war in Gaza have forced Columbia into a high-stakes balancing act between the competing demands of free speech and student safety.
Last week, the school was pushed from its high wire.
First, the Trump administration revoked $400 million in federal grants and contracts over what it said was the school’s failure to combat antisemitism, an extraordinary step that Columbia’s interim president said would affect “nearly every corner of the university.”
The next day, immigration agents arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a recent graduate, and removed him from university housing. President Trump said he would be stripped of his green card and deported.
