Cowardice and Capitulation: Columbia Has Sacrificed Its Own Students to Authoritarianism

Statement from AAUP President Todd Wolfson on Columbia’s announcement of student punishments in response to Trump administration threats.

The AAUP condemns in the strongest possible terms any university that would sacrifice its own students to the demands of an authoritarian government. Columbia University’s decision to punish students with multiyear suspensions, degree revocations, and expulsions is an outrageous assault on freedom of speech, student and faculty safety, shared governance, and free inquiry and thought.

The expulsion and firing of Grant Miner, president of UAW Local 2710—the union that represents thousands of student workers at Columbia—the day before contract negotiations were to begin is a severe violation of student and worker rights aimed at silencing all voices of dissent who have spoken out for peace and against the war in Gaza.  

The subjugation of universities to state power is a hallmark of autocracy. Columbia University’s immediate submission and betrayal of the core mission of higher education reflects cowardice and capitulation to a government that seems intent on destroying US higher education.

We call on all those who care about the future of US democracy to stand up now against these heinous assaults on freedom of speech, student and faculty safety, shared governance, and free inquiry and thought.