8 ms·
White House may seek binding control over Columbia through consent decree
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- leereeves 2y ago> Consent decrees are frequently used by federal courts to ensure that businesses and industries adhere to regulatory laws https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consent_decree https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consent_decree
- DaiPlusPlus 2y ago[flagged]
- ncallaway 2y agoWhat was the regulation that Columbia was alleged to have violated?
- davidf18 2y ago[dead]
- pstuart 2y agoMaking conservatives feel bad.
- Whoppertime 2y agoJewish Students on campus feel bad*
- matwood 2y agoUpsetting Trump 25 years ago... https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2025/03/31/columbia-trump-and-400-million-25-years-ago-and-now/ https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2025/03/31/columbia-t...
- ameister14 2y agoTitle VI of the Civil Rights Act.
- leereeves 2y agoYep. It's also worth noting that Trump didn't invent these charges. Many Jewish students sued, and the university president admitted: > I know that many of our Jewish students, and other students as well, have found the atmosphere intolerable in recent weeks. Many have left campus, and that is a tragedy. ... > The encampment has created an unwelcoming environment for many of our Jewish students and faculty. External actors have contributed to creating a hostile environment in violation of Title VI, especially around our gates, that is unsafe for everyone—including our neighbors. https://president.columbia.edu/news/statement-columbia-university-president-minouche-shafik-4-29 https://president.columbia.edu/news/statement-columbia-unive...
- deepfriedbits 2y agoThey're also applied to law enforcement agencies in the United States. https://nola.gov/next/nopd/consent-decree/ https://nola.gov/next/nopd/consent-decree/
- KerrAvon 2y ago[flagged]
- Havoc 2y agoThought they’re talking about the country for a second there
- iandanforth 2y agoSoon.
- kaonwarb 2y agoA good time to remember: Colombia/Columbia
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- AStonesThrow 2y agoOh, I could’ve sworn that they meant the Space Shuttle
- Avicebron 2y agoI clearly don't follow so bear with me, > A consent decree is an agreement or settlement that resolves a dispute between two parties without admission of guilt (in a criminal case) or liability (in a civil case). Why would this be in any way relevant to what I think is happening at Columbia from approximately ~20 min/week of random news snippets
- refulgentis 2y agoThe new part is requiring a legal mechanism that grants the gov't operational control.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- credit_guy 2y agoIt's not full operational control. A consent order means you promise to comply with some stuff. The government will monitor you if you comply or not. In that sense, it's some form of indirect control, but it's far from full control.
- refulgentis 2y agoTo be clear, definitely not full operational control -- just receivership for the Middle Eastern Studies department, hiring security officer with arrest powers, and an official with power to review any departments that offer education on the middle east. (via https://president.columbia.edu/content/fulfilling-our-commitments https://president.columbia.edu/content/fulfilling-our-commit...)
- alwillis 2y agoIt means instead of accepting Columbia’s word they’ll comply, they want Columbia to enter into a legal agreement, bypassing possibly years of litigation if Columbia changes their minds without such an agreement. It would give the Trump administration an unprecedented amount of control of a private university.
- tonetheman 2y ago[dead]
- malcolmgreaves 2y ago[flagged]
- chatmasta 2y agoWhy do they need all that grant money? Surely they have a large endowment. Is it mostly research grants? It’s not like they’re building libraries with it, right? tbh I’ve never really understood why universities don’t separate their grant-funded research institutions from their academic pursuits. Why keep it all under the same entity?
- matwood 2y agoAre we talking about what philosophically the government should spend money on? I think education and general research is a good expenditure. And R1 universities are probably the right places for that research. Before Trump, people from all over the world came the US to study with great benefit, now we're throwing them out. Either way, if we don't want to spend $400M on grants, why are we going to spend $100M+ on a military parade [1]? It's all about efficiency right? And since you mentioned libraries, IMLS recently was DOGE'd which used to provide funds to a lot of libraries. [1] https://fortune.com/2025/04/07/trump-birthday-military-parade-cost/ https://fortune.com/2025/04/07/trump-birthday-military-parad...
- chatmasta 2y agoI’m more asking about how the universities are spending the money (and which pile of money they’re spending). The government could spend the equivalent of a university’s endowment many times over and nobody would notice. If it wants to spend more money on scientific research, great - but I’m questioning how effectively that can be used as leverage if the universities don’t really “need” it.
- wredcoll 2y agoWhat makes you think they don't need $400m in research grants? Where else is that funding going to come from? They have an endowment but even columbia can not afford to finance half a billion dollars worth of research off the residuals from their investments.
- matwood 2y agoNo one really answered your question. We talk about endowments as a single pot of money the school can do anything with, but that's not really the case. Much of the time the money has to be used for specific purposes, and it's setup in a way that it can be used for that specific purpose in perpetuity. Need is also an interesting question. A lot of the money that has been cut off across the federal government was already allocated, but just not paid out yet. So people won a grant, built out a service around the grant, and then they are getting stiffed by the government. Suddenly having to find another source for those funds is not tenable even if the school has an endowment, and thus you see everything shutting down. The worst part of the whole thing is this will eventually cost the US more money because the government will likely lose most of these lawsuits but then it costs more to stand the machinery back up once the grants are paid.
- jmyeet 2y agoLet me connect the dots for anyone confused. Last Spring in particular there were a bunch of student protests against the genocide being done by Israel with material support from the US. Many of these protestors were themselves Jewish. Organizations such as the Jewish Voice for Peace [1] were heavily involved. Jewish people in the US have a long history of being active in civil rights movements. Notably, 3 of the 4 of the students who were killed by the National Guard at Kent State in 1968 were Jewish. Genocide (and apartheid) supporters try and silence dissent by claiming anti-Zionism (that is, opposition to Israel as a settler-colonial state) is anti-Semitism, which it is not. For every Jewish Zionist in the US there are 20-30 Christian Zionists who are motivated by bringing on the Rapture [2]. It's worth pointing out that if this prophecy were to actually come true, all the Jews in Israel would be killed. The point here is that many Zionists are actually anti-Semitic. The state came down hard on such protestors. There have been something like ~3500 arrests of college protestors (compared to ~1300 for January 6, an actual coup attempt). There's lots of lies disseminated to demonize the protestors. For example, false claims that Columbia protestors blocked Jewish students from going to classes. The administration has used research funding as a weapon to bring colleges into line to expel or otherwise punish studnets who protested, implement policies to say that criticism of the state of Israel was anti-Semitism and so on. Columbia, in particular, has already completely capitulated. All of this is a direct attack on free speech to silence any protest or critcism of US foreign policy in the Middle East. Columbia is being made an example of but it's odd that this is potentially going forward to a consent decree since Columbia has already fallen in line. But it goes so much further than this. Protestors and organizers have been targeted for unlawful deportation. They have in some cases been black-bagged and illegally kidnapped 1000 miles away without due process and then deported without seeing an immigration judge to have a deportation hearing, under the ludicrous "state of emergency" related to a Venezuelan gang. So where is ICE, who is the Gestapo in this scenario, getting these names? From places like the Canary Mission [3]. Canary Mission had already engaged in doxxing protestors. Now they seemingly have the ear of the administration to point the finger and have opponents black-bagged and sent to El Salvadore to a prison on a seemingly indefinite sentence. This is the 1930s Nazi Germany playbook. [1]: https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/ https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/ [2]: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/30/us-evangelical-christians-israel-hamas-war https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/30/us-evangelical... [3]: https://www.thenation.com/article/world/canary-mission-israel-covert-operations/ https://www.thenation.com/article/world/canary-mission-israe...
- tptacek 2y agoA consent decree doesn't give the White House binding control over Columbia; it gives a federal judge that control. Consent decrees with universities aren't unprecedented; there are several over ADA issues, for instance. I'm not saying this is good (I have no idea, but given the actors involved, probably not), and this isn't a normative claim.
- Avshalom 2y agoThis particular consent decree would a give judge binding control to enforce whatever the White House says. The ADA is, in important contrast to this situation, a law.
- tptacek 2y agoAs I said: it gives a judge binding control, not the White House.
- Avshalom 2y agoA distinction with out a difference because this is entirely about whether Columbia agrees to do whatever the White House says it has to do.
- tptacek 2y agoNo. The consent decree will be agreed to ahead of time, and a judge will interpret and police it. It isn't an arbitrary delegation of authority to the executive branch. We'll have to wait and see what the consent decree says to evaluate it further.
- wredcoll 2y agoGood point, we'll just have to wait and see if the people with the proven history of bad faith and process subversion will subvert it this time, too bad there's no way to know ahead of time!
- 9283409232 2y agoThis is why you don't kneel to dictators. The only reason this has gotten so far is because people think they will give an inch and Trump won't try to take a mile. Do not forget that actual white supremacist are in high ranking positions of the US govt. "Antisemitism" is just a Trojan horse they use to justify their power grabs. They do not care about antisemitism.
- throw310822 2y ago> Antisemitism" is just a Trojan horse they use to justify their power grabs This is just about Israel. The US government is abolishing freedom of speech and engaging in arbitrary deportations and disappearances to curb activism and protests against Israel.
- 9283409232 2y agoAgain, trojan horse. Israel is the justification being used. If it wasn't Israel it would be something else. The protest at many of these colleges were organized by Jewish students.
- throw310822 2y agoThese methods are typical of authoritarian regimes to crush any protests that threaten the dominant powers. We can easily see that one of the dominant powers in this authoritarian regime is Israel. (Not "the Jews", many of whom took part in the protests- but Israel and its Zionist supporters in the US). And it is so powerful that even in the face of repression and limitations to freedom of speech that clearly go to its advantage, you don't dare to point your finger at it but claim that it's just an excuse for something different.
- 9283409232 2y ago> And it is so powerful that even in the face of repression and limitations to freedom of speech that clearly go to its advantage, you don't dare to point your finger at it but claim that it's just an excuse for something different. It is not that this force does not exist. It is that it is means to end, not the end itself.
- FarMcKon 2y agowrong post :facepalm:
- aaron695 2y ago[dead]