empower the Office of the President to suspend or expel students with an appeal process
through the Office of the President.
Time, place, and manner rules. Implement permanent, comprehensive time, place, and
manner rules to prevent disruption of teaching, research, and campus life.
Mask ban. Ban masks that are intended to conceal identity or intimidate others, with
exceptions for religious and health reasons. Any masked individual must wear their
Columbia ID on the outside of their clothing (this is already the policy at Columbia’s Irving
Medical Center).
Deliver plan to hold all student groups accountable. Recognized student groups and
individuals operating as constituent members of, or providing support for, unrecognized
groups engaged in violations of University policy must be held accountable through formal
investigations, disciplinary proceedings, and expulsion as appropriate.
● Formalize, adopt, and promulgate a definition of antisemitism. President Trump’s
Executive Order 13899 uses the IHRA definition. Anti-“Zionist” discrimination against
Jews in areas unrelated to Israel or Middle East must be addressed.
• Empower internal law enforcement. The University must ensure that Columbia security
has full law enforcement authority, including arrest and removal of agitators who foster an
unsafe or hostile work or study environment, or otherwise interfere with classroom
instruction or the functioning of the university.
MESAAS Department – Academic Receivership. Begin the process of placing the
Middle East, South Asian, and African Studies department under academic receivership for
a minimum of five years. The University must provide a full plan, with date certain
deliverables, by the March 20, 2025, deadline.
Deliver a plan for comprehensive admissions reform. The plan must include a strategy to
reform undergraduate admissions, international recruiting, and graduate admissions
practices to conform with federal law and policy.
We expect your immediate compliance with these critical next steps, after which we hope to open a
conversation about immediate and long-term structural reforms that will return Columbia to its
original mission of innovative research and academic excellence.
Sincerely,
Josh Gruenbaum
Comm’r of the Fed. Acquisition Serv.
General Services Administration
Sean R. Keveney
Acting General Counsel
U.S. Dep’t Health & Human Servs.
Thomas E. Wheeler
Acting General Counsel
U.S. Dept. of Education