Higher Education and a Crisis of Fealty
Scattered thoughts on the ongoing endemic of cowardice sweeping across America.
In the months following the election, we have seen individuals, companies, and institutions of all kinds unabashedly bend the knee to the Trump administration. ABC News paid out $15 million towards the Trump Presidential Library as a settlement in a defamation lawsuit filed by Trump himself. Chuck Schumer voting yes on the continuing resolution. Corporate oligarchs donating to and appearing at Donald Trump’s inauguration. And, most notably, Columbia University capitulating to the whims of the Trump administration.
These are individual, but not isolated, examples of what fascistic compliance looks like today. There is a fealty in America that is not new but feels more willing and unconcerned than ever before. Among all the parties mentioned here, universities play a particular role in that they have historically served as battlegrounds for student-led movements and activism of all kinds. Student protests are barometers for generational attitudes and illustrate a future in which those students strive to live, actualizing the protections of the First Amendment in order to do so.
For years now, Americans have had to endure relentless badgering from the right on the apparent Marxist radicalization happening across American education. From higher ed to K-12 schooling, the deep state has taken a top-down approach to manipulating the minds of our youth in order to transform the country into a Communist hellscape. In doing so, conservatives have become marginalized and censored in such a way that, upon taking power, the only option for recourse is to bring oppositional forces to heel.
It was always known, but has now become clear, that the essence of Trump II is to push the boundaries of executive power in a way that permanently alters presidential authority in this country. Coincidentally, we are witnessing this in practice with American universities acting as subservient conduits for the goals of this administration. Hypocrisy is not the problem here, however. What has transpired at Columbia University over the last couple of weeks is the single biggest threat to American civil liberties that we face today. The arrest and subsequent disappearing of Mahmoud Khalil is the first of what the administration hopes will become many—a litmus test for what they can get away with.
Since Khalil’s arrest, Columbia has also gone on to revoke the degrees of several pro-Palestinian graduates and expel current students. It’s hard to imagine Columbia being disinterested in doing these things anyways, but it’s important to note that the catalyst for this was a $400 million cut in federal grants to Columbia by the Trump administration “due to the school's continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.”
This is an institution of higher learning being threatened by the government to comply with their dishonest and manipulative definition of antisemitism or risk having their funding cut. It will not stop here. There are 9 other universities listed by the DOJ’s Federal Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism that will face the same kind of ultimatum.
The facts of the matter are important. Mahmoud Khalil committed no crime, has done nothing illegal, is a legal US resident, and was arrested by plainclothes officers who did not identify themselves. The purpose of campus protests surrounding Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people was to get the universities to divest from their complicity in Israeli war crimes in the West Bank. Being opposed to Israeli war crimes is not the same thing as being antisemitic.
Khalil, and all students and graduates affected by Columbia’s actions, exercised their First Amendment rights. They were not violent. Khalil was arrested without a warrant under the pretense that his student visa was being revoked. Upon being told that Khalil is a legal resident with a green card, officials said they were revoking that instead. After his arrest, Khalil was not allowed to speak to his lawyers for several days, and his lawyers were lied to regarding his whereabouts. At one point, Khalil’s lawyers were hung up on when inquiring over the phone about where Khalil was being held. His arrest and detention are illegal and blatant violations of the First Amendment.
On the topic of fealty, one of the more confounding aspects of the State Department’s actions is that this is all done, supposedly, specifically for the sake of Israel. The US is going out to bat this hard for an ally that has completely isolated itself from the rest of the world over the precise issue the US is shielding them on. Despite already existing in this country to a certain degree1, we are looking at a future where it is fully illegal to be critical of the state of Israel. Even taking into account that American foreign interests directly align with the expansion of an Israeli state, it is wild to see the US care so deeply about dissent towards something that is not itself. The United States is choosing wholeheartedly to die on this hill.
Columbia is cowardly in a way that is far too common today, caving to the mafioso-style strong-arming of an administration that just keeps getting away with it. This is what has made student protests so meaningful. When the adults on campus refuse to stand for what’s right, the responsibility falls upon the collective action of young people everywhere. Universities pride themselves on the facade of being intellectual sandboxes, and yet they are now responsible for some of the most oppressive First Amendment violations in America’s history. Students cannot rely on school leadership so they in turn look to each other.
Unsurprisingly, campus administrators operate with the same sort of loyalty to the bottom line as any business executive or politician. Columbia’s endowment is almost $15 billion, and they are the largest private landowner in New York City. This asset compilation is not uncommon among elite universities, providing crucial context to this type of maddening capitulation. $400 million is not nothing, but it is apparently the running price tag on civil liberty.
The Trump administration's stranglehold on the media and persistent blitz of headline after headline have made it difficult for certain stories to stick. While it’s effective in creating a disorienting 24-hour news cycle, federal spending cuts and mass deportation are the issues dominating headlines writ large. Even as individual stories come and go, the administration cannot escape sentiment surrounding its execution of policy. As this pertains to Columbia, Khalil, and the government’s attempt to deport pro-Palestinian protesters, it is imperative that this particular story does not get lost in the shuffle. What happens to Mahmoud Khalil will be a defining moment of our time. American fascism is no longer a “what-if.” It is here, and it is happening now. The eventual court battle will determine the extent to which it is allowed to continue.
It remains to be seen how exactly these other 9 universities will handle the State Department’s threats, but there’s no reason to believe those presidents and administrators will be any less servile. If we’re keeping track of who exactly has been on the right side of history, I’d wager the students protesting the Vietnam War, the Iraq War, and Israel’s occupation of the West Bank seem to have the better track record. After all, what Columbia has done isn’t even all that unprecedented.
Anti-BDS laws are laws which effectively seek to retaliate against people and organizations engaged in boycotts of Israel-affiliated entities. There are currently 37 states with anti-BDS laws in place. In some cases, violation of these laws results in termination of employment.