Academic Freedom (Test)

Academic freedom in America is in danger says FT today

Crawford Kilian

@crof.bsky.social

A statement from the Columbia Alumni for Academic Freedom, of which I am a member: www.columbiaalumniforacad….

www.columbiaalumniforacademicfreedom.org

CAAF Statement on Columbia’s Deal with the US Government - Columbia Alumni for Academic Freedom

Statement of Columbia Alumni for Academic Freedom on the Settlement Agreement between the Trump Administration and Columbia University Download

GenderSci Lab

@genderscilab.bsky.social

"Defending research and clinical practice in gender-related areas must be a priority in the face of perilous new attacks on science and academic freedom" - "Gender Under Attack," by GenderSci Lab director Sarah Richardson (@profrichardson.bsky.social) , in today's Lancet.

Knight First Amendment Institute

@knightcolumbia.org

Universities “are among the most protected of all private institutions because they not only have free speech rights, they have academic freedom rights.” Yet they “are choosing not to defend themselves on the extremely strong First Amendment grounds they have," Lakier tells @cristianfarias.com.

Evan Berry

@ecothought.bsky.social

"the antithesis of the academic freedom"

Emissary Of Night | ليلى@diplomatofnight.com

Professor Rashid Khalidi, who called Columbia "Vichy on the Hudson in March, has withdrawn his fall course at Columbia in protest of its deal with the Trump administration and adoption of the IHRA definition. He calls it a surrender of academic freedom and complicity in genocide. His open letter:

www.theguardian.com

Harvard Magazine

@harvardmagazine.bsky.social

Harvard Magazine gathered seven Harvard College students of diverse political stripes this week for a discussion about academic freedom, the campus climate, and recent changes in support for women, minorities, and LGBTQ students. #Harvard www.harvardmagazine.com/2….

www.harvardmagazine.com

Harvard Undergraduates Discuss a Changing University | Harvard Magazine

A student panel grapples—civilly—with shifting policies and differing opinions.

BagaMehr

@bagamehr.bsky.social

www.theguardian.com/us-ne…. Just as Prof. Khalidi has resisted, so also must all who value academic freedom resist the efforts of Trump to dictate what is taught in American universities.

www.theguardian.com

Prominent historian cancels course at Columbia University over Trump deal

Rashid Khalidi, in open letter published by the Guardian, accuses university of ‘capitulating’ with $200m settlement

Emissary Of Night | ليلى

@diplomatofnight.com

www.theguardian.com

I spent decades at Columbia. I’m withdrawing my fall course due to its deal with Trump | Rashid Khalidi

The university’s draconian policies and new definition of antisemitism make much teaching impossible

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Michael Lillis

@boronmcnuclei.bsky.social

I’m just curious what Oklahoma uses to entice teachers to come to the state ranked 48/50. Limiting my academic freedom is a strange place to begin an appeal.

Scott Horton

@robertscotthorton.bsky.social

You don't put your university into receivership or allow politicians to dictate curriculum, department chairs and to eliminate departments if you believe in academic freedom. You don't invite the secret police in to check the identity of student protesters. Columbia has made every wrong choice.

www.ft.com

Academic freedom in America is in danger

Columbia University’s settlement with the Trump administration marks a significant erosion of institutional autonomy

@mojubaolu.bsky.social

www.columbiaalumniforacad…. CAAF Statement on Columbia’s Deal with the US Government - Columbia Alumni for Academic Freedom

www.columbiaalumniforacademicfreedom.org

CAAF Statement on Columbia’s Deal with the US Government - Columbia Alumni for Academic Freedom

Statement of Columbia Alumni for Academic Freedom on the Settlement Agreement between the Trump Administration and Columbia University Download

Susan Klaiber

@susanklaiber.bsky.social

Statement of Columbia Alumni for Academic Freedom on the Settlement Agreement between the Trump Administration and Columbia University www.columbiaalumniforacad….

Statement of Columbia Alumni for Academic Freedom on the Settlement Agreement between the Trump Administration and Columbia University

The Trump Administration’s abuses have placed Columbia University leadership in an agonizing position, pitting the welfare of Columbia's faculty, staff, and students – and the fate of critical research projects – against considerations of institutional independence, academic freedom, constitutional democracy and rule of law. We recognize that, in reaching a settlement, University leadership acted in what they believed to be Columbia’s best interest. To castigate a victim of extortion for making a bargain feels unsympathetic and unfair.

But it seems impossible to avoid the conclusion that Columbia’s decision to enter into the settlement was a grievous mistake. It was a surrender to an unprecedented and extralegal campaign of governmental extortion.

We are not confident that the settlement will provide the negotiated peace that is its ostensible justification. An Administration so ready to use blatantly unconstitutional means in pursuit of flagrantly unconstitutional ends cannot be trusted to adhere to any settlement. And one of the agreement’s federal signatories (the Secretary of Education) has described the agreement as effecting an enforceable mandate to change the University’s policies and alter the content and viewpoints of campus speech. The Administration obviously (and predictably) sees the settlement as giving them additional leverage to control Columbia’s academic and extracurricular life and to implement its own preferred terms of inquiry and debate in the name of “viewpoint diversity.”

The various disclaimers in the agreement are little protection against an Administration that operates by power, not law—and indeed revels in flouting legal restraints and shattering norms of fair process and regularity.

But even if the agreement is honored, it comes at an enormous cost in institutional independence and stature – and it will embolden and enable further governmental lawlessness and depredations against other schools and people. Columbia’s surrendering to official intimidation of this kind -- and allowing the Administration to claim vindication of its decision to launch this disgraceful campaign in the first place -- will make it more difficult for other universities and the myriad other institutions and people who are and will be targets of similar ruinous threats to resist such extortion. The dilemma between individual interest and duties to foundational norms and broader society has been a brutal reality in authoritarian societies throughout history and across the globe. For a leading institution of American society to meekly surrender to such blatant illegality and to betray and imperil its core mission and values is a profoundly dispiriting and potentially significant defeat in the struggle to preserve a free society.

Resisting governmental abuses entails risk and hardship. Columbia’s decision to concede in the midst of Trump's nationwide campaign against every institution and voice perceived as insufficiently allegiant to the Administration failed to honor the paramount interest in standing up to patent, systematic wrongdoing.

As profoundly disappointing as this week’s announcement is, it is the responsibility of those who care about Columbia, and about other universities and basic democratic norms under threat, not to sit by and lament, but to stand up. We urge Columbia alumni to become more involved in University life, to push back against further incursions on constitutional freedoms at Columbia and elsewhere, and identify and pursue changes in the University and the Nation that will ensure that this week’s events not be repeated so that Columbia’s proud standing and independence may be restored.

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Columbia Alumni for Academic Freedom

Ray Mitchell

@raymitchell.bsky.social

Statement from Columbia Alumni for Academic Freedom regarding @columbiauniversity.bsky.social's capitulation to the current Administration. www.columbiaalumniforacad….

But even if the agreement is honored, it comes at an enormous cost in institutional independence and stature – and it will embolden and enable further governmental lawlessness and depredations against other schools and people. Columbia’s surrendering to official intimidation of this kind -- and allowing the Administration to claim vindication of its decision to launch this disgraceful campaign in the first place -- will make it more difficult for other universities and the myriad other institutions and people who are and will be targets of similar ruinous threats to resist such extortion. The dilemma between individual interest and duties to foundational norms and broader society has been a brutal reality in authoritarian societies throughout history and across the globe. For a leading institution of American society to meekly surrender to such blatant illegality and to betray and imperil its core mission and values is a profoundly dispiriting and potentially significant defeat in the struggle to preserve a free society.

Resisting governmental abuses entails risk and hardship. Columbia’s decision to concede in the midst of Trump's nationwide campaign against every institution and voice perceived as insufficiently allegiant to the Administration failed to honor the paramount interest in standing up to patent, systematic wrongdoing.

As profoundly disappointing as this week’s announcement is, it is the responsibility of those who care about Columbia, and about other universities and basic democratic norms under threat, not to sit by and lament, but to stand up. We urge Columbia alumni to become more involved in University life, to push back against further incursions on constitutional freedoms at Columbia and elsewhere, and identify and pursue changes in the University and the Nation that will ensure that this week’s events not be repeated so that Columbia’s proud standing and independence may be restored.

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Columbia Alumni for Academic Freedom

@surtling.bsky.social

Just like the lawyers who left law firms that caved to tRump, academics need to resign and leave universities that are willing to sell away their academic freedom Columbia needs to roast of the the growing fire of disgraced, cowardly institutions that think appeasing a dictator is a viable strategy

apple.news

Prominent historian cancels course at Columbia University over Trump deal — Guardian US

Rashid Khalidi, in open letter published by the Guardian, accuses university of ‘capitulating’ with $200m settlement

Dheepa Sundaram, PhD (she/her)

@themodsisyphus.bsky.social

“…It constitutes the antithesis of the academic freedom that you have disingenuously claimed will not be infringed by this shameful capitulation to the anti-intellectual forces animating the Trump administration.” www.theguardian.com/comme….

www.theguardian.com

I spent decades at Columbia. I’m withdrawing my fall course due to its deal with Trump | Rashid Khalidi

The university’s draconian policies and new definition of antisemitism make much teaching impossible

Will Smiley

@will-smiley.bsky.social

It is striking to me, as a simple state university professor, how it’s the Ivy League bigwigs whose academic freedom is being most directly attacked, who are often quickest to explain why actually it’s all not that bad. Tooze is at Columbia.

Bill K

@really-mad.bsky.social

The only academic freedom in Louisiana is if you're a professor of the Ten Commandments and you sign an agreement to post them conspicuously in your classroom.

Bob Mann@robertmannbooks.com

Academic freedom is dying in Louisiana: Southeastern Louisiana University sidelines scientist who exposed toxic metals in Lake Maurepas. lailluminator.com/2025/07/31/s...

lailluminator.com

DePaul Law

@depaullaw.bsky.social