On Monday, March 24, the Columbia University chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) held an “Emergency Vigil” outside the University’s main gates. Organizers spoke, condemning Columbia’s reported compliance with demands requested by the Trump administration on March 13. 

Students and faculty alike gathered at the Columbia University gates at 116th and Amsterdam on Monday to hear nine professors, lecturers, and AAUP members speak out against Columbia’s letter to the Trump administration. Many have claimed the letter fully complied with the recent demands put forth by the Trump administration as conditions for beginning negotiations to restore the $400 million in funding cuts announced in early March. Observers held signs reading “Hands Off Our Students, Faculty, and Research,” “Defend Freedom of Speech,” and “Defend Science.” 

Columbia Professor of Mathematics and Vice President of the AAUP Michael Thaddeus made introductory remarks before a pool of reporters. He framed Columbia’s reported acquiescence to the federal government’s demands–which included placing the Middle East, South Asian, and African Studies Department under academic receivership–as existential threats to Columbia and universities everywhere. Universities exist to “foster debate, discussion, inquiry, investigation, and discovery without fear of external pressure,” he said.

Thaddeus argued that in handing over powers that “have long belonged to faculty and to [the] University senate,” Columbia’s administration “open[ed] the door to political influence” over higher education, an institution integral to civil society in the U.S. He ended his remarks by calling on Columbia students, faculty, and workers to “band together to save the university.” 

The following speakers echoed Thaddeus’s sentiments, emphasizing the importance of independent universities to maintain a free and thriving democracy. Tim Frye, Professor of Post-Soviet Foreign Policy, drew parallels between the Trump administration’s actions and strategies of autocratic governments around the world: “I’ve seen this playbook before. For 30 years, I’ve […] seen how Hungary, Turkey, and China have targeted higher education.” 

A Cornell University professor of employment law and President of Cornell’s AAUP chapter used similar language in his speech, claiming that “the Trump administration is attacking Columbia as a target to coerce other universities to fall in line with an authoritarian regime.” 

Columbia AAUP executive director Mia McIver and Professor of Biostatistics Melanie Wall of the Mailman School of Public Health both stressed the human toll of Trump’s funding cuts. They argued that the Columbia administration needs to fight, rather than fold, under threats of defunding. Wall argued that despite the importance of the $400 million in University funding which were recently canceled by the Trump administration, termination of research cuts and medical research are equally devastating in impact. Eight of Wall’s own research grants were revoked, and hundreds of health science researchers, PhD students, and faculty rely on “NIH dollars” to fund their research, she said. 

McIver went further, asserting that Trump’s cuts to research at Columbia and across the country “will kill the critically ill patients that depend on cutting-edge biomedical research to save their lives.” In response to attacks on medical sciences, she called on Columbia to defend its students and “the freedom to teach, learn, and research.” Columbia has “the power and the resources to beat back Trump’s cuts,” McIver stated.

Despite the speakers’ messages condemning both the Trump administration and the University’s response, the vigil provided a message of hope for the University’s future. Fry expressed faith in Columbia’s students in the face of potential academic censorship, stating “if anyone thinks they can brainwash Columbia students, they’ve never met a Columbia student.” 

Professor of U.S. Foreign and Security Policy Page Fortna noted the importance of the high turnout at the vigil amid ongoing political debates on campus. “We are here today not despite our disagreements,” she said. “We are here precisely because of them.”  

Each speaker emphasized the need for solidarity, hope, and willingness to speak out in the face of threats to academic freedom. 

“Columbia will remain the college of no king,” Forna concluded.

Header image via Bwog Staff