President Linda Mills said that NYU is “dealing with uncertainty” amid the Trump administration’s prospective threats to international student visas and federal research funding in an email on Wednesday — her first universitywide message of the semester.
“We know that some would like us to speak out with frequency as announcements are made,” Mills wrote in the email. “Whether we are issuing public comment or not, I want to reassure you that we remain keenly focused on sustaining and upholding our community’s values and safeguarding our scholarly mission.”
Earlier this week, NYU said it would “comply with the law” amid President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration. In her email, Mills directed community members with “questions about immigration” to an NYU site that lists federal policy updates concerning international students and scholars. She also referred to a Tuesday memo describing the university’s specific protocols, which detail that it will not disclose people’s personal information unless legally obligated.
Mills also said that NYU would publish announcements “for potential impacts to research” on a new “Federal Update Hub” online so that the administration is “not writing community-wide emails with every new development.” In a Q&A section on the site, the university stated that it was “evaluating the impact” of the Jan. 28 court ruling that rescinded Trump’s executive order to freeze federal funding — which had immediately terminated at least two NYU grants.
Last week, NYU’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors revealed a “special relationship” between Mills and a pro-Israeli Facebook group, whose founder has recently called for the deportation of “foreign students and faculty that support Hamas.” Mills did not address the AAUP’s report in her Wednesday email.
Only faculty and staff are invited to attend listening sessions this semester, after Mills had also opened the opportunity to students since the end of the spring 2024 semester. She introduced the forums as the “only path forward” after authorizing the mass arrest of dozens of students and faculty and imposed sanctions on protesters for participating in pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus. In response to what over 350 community members shared in the listening sessions, NYU updated its student conduct guidelines, which cite “code words, like ‘Zionist,’” as potentially discriminatory speech, and implemented Campus Advisory alerts to inform students of protests in the area.
“The Provost and I will attend a variety of events to continue to foster conversations that will help us weather these turbulent times,” Mills said. “We all have a role to play in fostering our beloved NYU.”
Mills stated that programming for “How We Engage,” which aims to promote dialogue across the NYU community through workshops and modules, will also resume. Last semester, student groups refused to complete the mandatory “How We Engage Toolkit” on Brightspace, which requires students to comply with NYU’s controversial updated student conduct policy. The fourth and final module will open to students in March and overview how to promote dialogue on “issues of identity.”
Contact Aashna Miharia at [email protected].
