Category Archives: US universities

Columbia alumni rip up diplomas to protest activist Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest

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Group of Sipa graduates demonstrate against government’s jailing of graduate student, who spoke up for Palestinians

A handful of alumni from Columbia University’s school of international and public affairs (Sipa) ripped their diplomas in a show of protest against the federal government’s jailing of graduate student Mahmoud Khalil’s over his activism for Palestinians.

On Saturday, instead of participating in the university’s annual Sipa alumni day, a few dozen alumni and students gathered outside campus as part of a protest organized by Sipa’s and Barnard Alumni for Palestine groups.

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Columbia’s president steps aside for new leadership at embattled university

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Interim president Katrina Armstrong to transfer to medical center with appointment of board of trustees co-chair Claire Shipman

Columbia University’s interim president has stepped down, the latest leadership shakeup at the Ivy League school, which has been aggressively targeted by the Trump administration over pro-Palestinian protests on campus.

Katrina Armstrong is being replaced by Claire Shipman, co-chair of its board of trustees, who is stepping up as acting president effective immediately, the university said on Friday evening. Shipman is the university’s third president since August, when Minouche Shafik resigned amid intense scrutiny of her handling of demonstrations.

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US immigration officials detain doctoral student at University of Alabama

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Justification for arrest not clear as Trump administration increasingly targets students for arrest and deportation

US immigration authorities have detained a doctoral student at the University of Alabama, campus officials confirmed on Wednesday.

A spokesperson for the state’s flagship university said in a brief statement that a student was arrested “off campus” by federal immigration officials, but declined to comment further, citing privacy laws.

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Columbia University caves to demands to restore $400m from Trump administration

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Measures include empowering security officers to arrest people, and reassigning control of Middle East department

Columbia University has yielded to a series of changes demanded by the Trump administration as a pre-condition for restoring $400m in federal funding the government pulled this month amid allegations that the school tolerated antisemitism on campus.

The university released a memo outlining its agreement with Donald Trump’s administration hours before an extended deadline set by the government was to expire.

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University of California imposes hiring freeze in response to Trump cuts

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President Michael Drake also directs campuses to cut costs, such as delaying maintenance and reducing business travel

The University of California has imposed a system-wide hiring freeze and made additional cuts, its president said on Wednesday, as part of efforts to mitigate the expected impact of sharp cuts in federal funding under the Trump administration.

In a letter to staff and students, the school’s president, Michael Drake, said he had also directed all UC locations to implement cost-saving measures, such as delaying maintenance and reducing business travel, to help conserve funds.

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Brown University professor deported despite judge’s order, defying US court

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Rasha Alawieh’s case highlights Donald Trump’s escalating immigration policies and tensions with universities

A Brown University medical professor was deported to Lebanon over the weekend despite having a valid US work visa, defying a judge’s order blocking her immediate removal from the country.

The case centering on Rasha Alawieh, 34, comes as Donald Trump’s second presidential administration has been escalating its immigration policies and attacking universities.

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Johns Hopkins to lose 2,000 jobs after Trump’s $800m cut in USAid funding

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University says cut in funding ‘forcing us to wind down critical work’ as academics rally against job losses

Johns Hopkins University announced it was planning to cut more than 2,000 jobs after the Trump administration slashed $800m in grants to the renowned academic institution.

The funding for the positions had come from the US Agency for International Development, which the administration has gutted with massive cuts. A total of 247 domestic US workers and another 1,975 positions abroad in 44 countries will be affected by what amounts to the largest layoff in the history of the university.

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Columbia University ‘refusing to help’ identify people for arrest – White House

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Trump administration has axed $400m in federal funding to Columbia and detained student activist Mahmoud Khalil

The Trump administration said on Tuesday that Columbia University was “refusing to help” the Department of Homeland Security identify people for arrest on campus, after immigration authorities detained a prominent Palestinian activist and recent Columbia graduate over the weekend.

The Trump White House’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said on Tuesday the administration had given the university names of multiple individuals it accused of “pro-Hamas activity”, reiterating the administration’s intention to deport activists associated with pro-Palestinian protests.

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US judge blocks deportation of Palestinian activist detained by Ice

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Critics condemn arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, Columbia University graduate student who led protests over Gaza war

A judge has blocked the deportation of the prominent Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia University’s protests against Israel over the war in Gaza. Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student at Columbia University until this past December who holds permanent US residency, is being detained by US immigration authorities at a facility in Louisiana after his arrest, according to information from officials.

A spokesperson for the US’s homeland security department – as well as the country’s top diplomat – confirmed the arrest. In a statement to the Associated Press, a homeland security department spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, said Khalil’s arrest was made to support Donald Trump’s presidential orders “prohibiting antisemitism”.

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‘Reeks of McCarthyism’: outrage after Ice detains Palestinian student activist

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Arrest of Mahmoud Khalil a ‘targeted, retaliatory’ attack on his first amendment rights, say civil rights groups

Free speech organizations and advocates are expressing outrage after a prominent Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia University’s pro-Palestinian protests last year, was arrested and detained over the weekend.

Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent US resident with a green card, was taken into custody by federal immigration authorities on Saturday night, who reportedly said that they were acting on a state department order to revoke his green card.

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Ice arrests Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia protests, lawyer says

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Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest comes as Trump vows to deport foreign students involved in protests against Israel’s war

A prominent Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia University’s student encampment movement was arrested on Saturday night by federal immigration authorities who claimed they were acting on a state department order to revoke his green card, according to his attorney.

Mahmoud Khalil was at his university-owned apartment, blocks from the private Ivy League university’s main campus in New York when several Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents entered the building and took him into custody, his attorney, Amy Greer, told the Associated Press.

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Multiple people face charges in hazing death of Southern University student

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Man surrenders to police and two more arrests expected in Caleb Wilson’s death after Omega Psi Phi fraternity ritual

Multiple people are facing criminal charges in the recent death of a 20-year-old student at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, that evidently occurred amid a fraternity hazing, authorities have said.

Caleb McCray, 23, surrendered to police in Louisiana’s capital city on Thursday on counts of manslaughter as well as criminal hazing in the 27 February death of 20-year-old Caleb Wilson, a mechanical engineering student at Southern as well as a member of its famed Human Jukebox marching band.

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US to revoke student visas over ‘pro-Hamas’ social media posts flagged by AI – report

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State department launches AI-assisted reviews of accounts to look for what it perceives as Hamas supporters

The US state department will use artificial intelligence to revoke visas of foreign students who it perceives as supporters of Hamas, Axios reported on Thursday, citing senior state department officials.

Donald Trump signed an executive order in January to combat antisemitism and has pledged to deport non-citizen college students and others who took part in pro-Palestinian protests that have been ongoing for months amid Israel’s military assault on Gaza after Hamas’s October 2023 attack.

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New York governor orders removal of Palestinian studies job posting at Cuny

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Hunter College faculty and staff union condemns Kathy Hochul’s order to take down listing, calling it ‘overreach of authority’

The New York governor, Kathy Hochul ordered the City University of New York (Cuny) to immediately remove a job posting advertising a Palestinian studies professor role at the state university system’s Hunter College.

In the job listing, Hunter College wrote that the institution is seeking “a historically grounded scholar who takes a critical lens to issues pertaining to Palestine including but not limited to: settler colonialism, genocide, human rights, apartheid, migration, climate and infrastructure devastation, health, race, gender, and sexuality”.

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Dartmouth sorority and two fraternity members charged over death of student

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Won Jang drowned in Connecticut River in July after party where alcohol was supplied by his fraternity

A sorority at Dartmouth College and two members of a fraternity are facing charges related to the death of a student who drowned after attending an off-campus party this summer.

Won Jang, 20, of Middletown, Delaware, had been reported missing in July after the party. State and local emergency responders searched the Connecticut River and found his body.

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Florida liberal arts college reinstates ‘wokeness’ course amid furore

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Course set to be taught by controversial British ‘anti-woke’ media commentator Andrew Doyle

New College of Florida reinstated a course on “wokeness” taught by controversial British media personality and culture warrior Andrew Doyle to its catalog, after appearing to remove it from an earlier version, amid an ongoing furore over the university’s transformation into a more conservative institution.

The course was also restored to an internal enrollment system but without Doyle’s name attached, according to students with access to the system. The moves followed criticism of the course online and local media reports on Tuesday night.

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Columbia pays $395,000 to student suspended over protest ‘fart spray’

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Israeli student filed lawsuit after suspension for spraying pro-Palestinian protesters with foul-smelling substance

Columbia University has reached a $395,000 settlement with a student who was suspended in January after spraying student protesters with a foul-smelling substance at one of several campus demonstrations in support of Palestine.

The Israeli student who received the payout had been suspended until May.

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Florida university to host extremist after DeSantis-led lurch to right

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Next month, New College of Florida will welcome activist and writer Steve Sailer, a ‘proponent of scientific racism’

New College of Florida (NCF) will host the extremist writer Steve Sailer, who has been described as a “white supremacist” and a “proponent of scientific racism”, at a college-branded public event next month.

New College has made headlines since January 2023, when the rightwing governor, Ron DeSantis, vowed to transform it from a university known for liberal values into a conservative institution, and installed a new board of trustees including the rightwing culture warrior Christopher Rufo. That board in turn appointed DeSantis’s “close ally” Richard Corcoran as the new college president, in which role he makes a $699,000 salary.

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Elite colleges see Black enrollment drop after affirmative action strike-down

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Amherst College and Tufts University report lower number of Black students this year as white enrollment increases

Enrollment for Black students fell at two elite US colleges in the first class since the supreme court’s decision last year to strike down affirmative action in college admissions and upend the nation’s academic landscape.

Amherst College and Tufts University, both in Massachusetts, reported a drop in the share of Black first-year students, an early sign that the high court’s ruling could negatively affect racial diversity in the US’s more selective colleges and universities, according to the New York Times.

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‘A police state’: US universities impose rules to avoid repeat of Gaza protests

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Students, faculty and advocates warn of chilling effect on free speech as schools across US introduce restrictions

Universities across the US are planning tougher rules to restrict protests when students return from summer vacation, an effort to avoid the chaos of last semester when demonstrations against Israel’s war in Gaza led to police crackdowns on campuses nationwide.

Columbia University students, who were at the vanguard of the movement, may encounter the most changes. The university president, Minouche Shafik, resigned this week in the wake of criticism for her handling of the protests, but not before overseeing the installation of fencing around the lawns of the school’s quad – the heart of campus life and the site of large protest encampments.

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