Please consider signing this letter:
Dear President Claire Shipman, Trustees of Columbia University, and Journalism School Dean Jelani Cobb:
The undersigned alumni of Columbia Journalism School have serious concerns about the disturbing concessions the university has made to the Trump administration and the president’s unprecedented attack on the First Amendment.
We fear there will be further incursions on the independence of the university and continuing degradation of the quality of the education. Trump’s war against academia is widening in scope. In a recent letter to nine universities, the administration demanded that they support his authoritarian views if they want to continue to receive federal funds. The new requirements disdain transgender students and severely restrict free speech of employees, including professors. The administration also demands that universities apply a political litmus test for international students.
We fear that universities that agree to these terms will be ensnared by a politically repressive bully in an endless cycle of appeasement.
We are alarmed by the government’s dictatorial assault on the press. The president has sued several news organizations on frivolous grounds. Trump recently sued The New York Times for libel with a ludicrous claim of $15 billion in damages, partly for its “deranged endorsement” of Kamala Harris. He also extorted a $16 million settlement from CBS over a silly allegation about the editing of a “60 Minutes” interview with her. Most recently the Pentagon imposed restrictions on news gathering.
Trump has repeatedly called journalists the “enemy of the people.” He has threatened to revoke broadcast licenses for networks whose coverage rankles him, and he has even suggested that reporters who ask tough questions should be investigated.
This administration is seeking to destroy freedom of speech and the press through a campaign of intimidation, censorship, and threats.
If we do not speak out forcefully in favor of free expression, then our nation will backslide further into tyranny, even after Trump leaves office.
Though we commend Dean Cobb’s spirited defense of the First Amendment, the time has come for the leadership of the university to resist Trump’s relentless interference in higher education and his attacks on a free press.
Words are not enough. The university needs to stand up against authoritarianism.