Columbia University has found itself in major First Amendment debates − on and off campus.
Though it’s just one of an array of schools targeted by the Trump administration over their responses to pro-Palestinian protests, a unique tension exists between the administration’s actions and the work being done by several of its institutions in support of the First Amendment and against federal oversight.
Columbia Journalism School is considered among the best and most prestigious in the nation, Columbia Journalism Review is widely respected in the industry and the Knight First Amendment Institute won a federal court case against the Trump administration’s efforts to deport foreign-born student protesters over their speech.
Some within those institutions have been vocal about their concerns over what’s happened on their campus this year.
Following Mahmoud Khalil’s detainment in March after leading anti-Israel protests on Columbia’s campus, journalism faculty issued a statement saying such actions “represent threats against political speech and the ability of the American press to do its essential job.”
“The Columbia Journalism School stands in defense of First Amendment principles of free speech and free press across the political spectrum,” the statement read.
That same month, the Trump administration announced it was canceling $400 million in federal funds for Columbia because of what it described as the school’s failure to address antisemitism amid the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
After the university’s $200 million deal with the administration was announced in late July, the Knight institute said it had “serious concerns” about the deal’s terms and called it an “astonishing transfer of autonomy and authority to the government.”
Among other provisions, the agreement compels the university to enforce its previously announced policies as they relate to antisemitism and harassment, which generally bar protests inside academic buildings and require masked protesters to present their university identification if asked.
The agreement also notes that the school “expressly denies liability regarding the United States’ allegations or findings.”
Jameel Jaffer, the Knight institute’s executive director, told USA TODAY the administration’s focus on Columbia is part of a broader attack on certain industries, shown through executive orders directed at private law firms, lawsuits against media outlets and other negotiations with universities.
Jaffer said leaders of such institutions are in “a really hard position,” though he feared that reaching deals with the administration could create a domino effect.
“When one university or law firm or news organization capitulates, it’s incrementally harder for the next institution to resist,” Jaffer said.
A school spokesperson directed USA TODAY to a part of its agreement with the federal government that says it should not “be construed as giving the United States authority to dictate faculty hiring, University hiring, admission decisions or the content of academic speech.”
Those goals were the university’s “north star,” and it “did not waver from it” in reaching the agreement, Columbia University Interim President Claire Shipman wrote in a July 23 statement.
“Columbia’s governance remains in our control,” she said. “The federal government will not dictate what we teach, who teaches, or which students we admit.”
Knight institute says its work is ‘especially urgent right now’
At the time of its founding in 2016, Jaffer knew the Knight institute would have to challenge executive actions.
Every presidential administration has undertaken efforts implicating the freedoms of speech and the press in some form, he said, pointing to his previous work at the American Civil Liberties Union in which he was part of litigation against the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations.
But the scale to which Jaffer said the Trump administration is implementing a “sweeping assault on the First Amendment” is “unprecedented.”
“We often find ourselves defending principles that we, and I think most other people, assumed were well-settled,” he said.
The administration has rejected such criticisms, even as it has taken actions many view as a threat to the First Amendment.
Following President Donald Trump’s assertion that he “took the freedom of speech away” as it relates to flag burnings, which the Supreme Court has long recognized as protected speech, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told USA TODAY Trump “will always protect the First Amendment, while simultaneously implementing commonsense, tough-on-crime policies to prevent violence and chaos.”
Jaffer is “not unsympathetic” to the challenging circumstances university administrators are navigating, though he said it’s been “dispiriting to me, and … I think to many others as well, to see so many of the country’s most powerful institutions accommodating the Trump administration’s demands rather than fighting back.”
Jaffer stands by his criticisms of the university, though he emphasized that his organization has a large degree of autonomy and that Columbia hasn’t interfered with its work ‒ the vast majority of which focuses on issues outside of the Morningside Heights campus.
“I’m less worried for the Knight institute than I am for the country,” he said.
Journalism students find circumstances ‘clarifying’
Jelani Cobb, who serves as both dean of the journalism school and publisher of the Columbia Journalism Review, called the school’s deal with the Trump administration “the most pragmatic move” of the available options.
Though it’d “be foolish not to be worried” about the situation broadly, Cobb said he’s “not particularly worried” about the future of the institutions he leads. He added that he’s less concerned about the university’s response to the federal government than about the fact that it’s being made to respond to the federal government in the first place.
His latest book, “Three or More is a Riot: Notes on How We Got Here 2012-2025,” was released in mid-October. It includes Cobb’s reflections on historical events, social movements and political developments in the United States, ending with the 2024 election. Cobb wrote that the country would be “fundamentally different” by the end of Trump’s second term.
He wouldn’t say the same of Columbia, though he told USA TODAY the school has certainly been affected by the federal scrutiny and the “two years of turmoil and conflict” stemming from the Israel-Hamas war.
“It’s a very harsh terrain … that we’re trying to navigate, but we haven’t fundamentally changed anything about how we go about our responsibility,” he said.
Some of the journalism school’s students have even found the situation “clarifying,” he said, adding that they’ve seen firsthand the important role journalism plays in dicey times.
The Columbia Daily Spectator, the school’s student newspaper, was praised for its coverage of pro-Palestine encampments on campus that prompted the school to send in police, which led to scores of arrests.
‘I’ve learned a lot this year’
But student journalists have also been among those affected by a “climate of self-censorship,” senior lecturer Anya Schiffrin wrote in an Oct. 13 column for The Morningside Post, a publication by the university’s School of International and Public Affairs.
At the same time, she told USA TODAY her students are “absolutely delighted” to have discussions about the First Amendment, democracy and academic freedom in her classes, which focus on topics including global media and disinformation.
Though it’s “not very pleasant” to feel the federal government’s gaze, Schiffrin said it’s prompted deep reflection and important discussions on campus.
“I would say there’s a lot of us who are using the current moment to educate ourselves, as well as our students, about academic freedom and free expression,” she said. “And I’d say I’ve learned a lot this year.”
BrieAnna Frank is a First Amendment reporter at USA TODAY. Reach her at bjfrank@usatoday.com.
USA TODAY’s coverage of First Amendment issues is funded through a collaboration between the Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners. Funders do not provide editorial input.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Columbia University faces ‘harsh terrain’ and a First Amendment bind
