As the Trump administration cracked down for months on what the president said was unchecked antisemitism and leftist ideology on campuses, even the nation’s most prestigious and wealthy universities seemed to be on their back foot.
In March, Columbia agreed to a sweeping, unprecedented set of demands, including creating a new campus police force to remove student protesters and putting a Middle East studies department under outside control to win back potential access to $400 million in imperiled federal funds, the same month its second president in the span of 12 months stepped down.
