Life Happens Wherever You Are

Also want to pop my head in to note how spineless and disgusting it is of the Times to run a podcast about how Americans who still think the CIA killed Kennedy ~even though they've already released almost all the files they have on it~ are simply unaware that the CIA operates "much differently" now, during this particular historical moment

It's insane that Columbia bent the knee in terms of cracking down on its own students and faculty for the sake of making peace with the Trump administration. For the purpose of appeasing wealthy donor alumni, it is at least entirely reasonable as a method of self preservation, if still disgusting. For the sake of appeasing an administration that hates academia in general, it's just stupid, for two major reasons. The first is that the executive branch does not control the country's purse strings, and no president has the right to withdraw funds already allocated by Congress, or to rewrite contracts in which both parties are already engaged- this is obviously quite the gamble, but I think it is clear that this Court would give them their money back because it already belonged to them and I suspect that John Roberts is physically itching right now at the chance to have his juridical legacy include preventing America from developing a king. However, it is no bigger gamble to take it to court than it is to simply cross their fingers and hope that the Trump admin backs off after appeasing them once, which leads to the second point of obvious idiocy. Now that Columbia has behaved as though the Trump admin has a legitimate right to withhold already allocated funds from them in exchange for certain concessions, it is entirely reasonable and predictable that the Trump admin could come back with a new set of demands at any time and it would be reasonable for them to expect compliance. What's to stop them from demanding, in 6 months, that Columbia eliminate its women studies courses, for instance, or eliminate certain texts from their syllabi, or even include specific texts the administration wishes to promote?

Obviously, it would have taken time for them to get their money back because the courts are slow, but the notion that they've done anything by buckling other than signal that they're entirely willing to play an entirely illegitimate ballgame for the sake of peace which is not guaranteed to last any amount of time is nonsense. It would have been a tough semester or year or several for Columbia without their allocated funds, but the fundamental problem that the institution relies on federal funds and the federal government changes very regularly will not be solved or ameliorated by simply shrugging and hoping that Trump doesn't ask for further concessions when he now has absolutely no reason not to. They're not going to be able to get around the fact that the executive branch is going to be in the hands of a party that hates them and everything that they stand for for several more years.