Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil was detained on Saturday by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for his previous leadership role in pro-Palestinian encampments. He was taken by ICE while returning home with his wife — despite providing agents with documents proving he holds a green card — and now faces deportation charges. Soon after news of his detainment broke, President Donald Trump responded on X saying, “This is the first arrest of many to come.” Khalil’s arrest has sparked outrage among college students and pro-Palestinian activists alike. In the days since, nine students who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Columbia have been arrested, with two students expelled and four suspended.
These crackdowns and illegal detainments are the natural continuation of Trump’s campaign promises. During his campaign, Trump promised to purge universities of “pro-jihadist” students, and threatened pro-Palestinian student protestors on visas with deportation for their “pro-Hamas” or “jihadist” views. Student protestors are exercising their right to free speech to express outrage about the war crimes being perpetrated against Palestinians, but the Trump administration has pushed the narrative that anyone who sympathizes with the plight of Palestinians are therefore pro-Hamas in order to deport and arrest these protestors. His administration has also pledged that immigrants, particularly from Muslim-majority countries, would have to go through “strong ideological screening” when trying to enter the United States.
Under the pretense of combating antisemitism, Trump has targeted and punished universities that have had pro-Palestinian demonstrations. In January, Trump promised that he would, “quell pro-Hamas vandalism and intimidation, and investigate and punish anti-Jewish racism in leftist, anti-American colleges and universities.”
On Friday, Trump cut hundreds of millions in federal funding from Columbia and threatened the same for other universities that have had significant student protests. Just three days ago, the Trump administration listed 60 colleges where he aims to implement policies against antisemitism, with NYU notably absent from this list. This is perhaps due to the university’s decision to change its student conduct code to define the term “Zionist” as a potential code word used by antisemitic individuals. This change is in accordance with the Anti-Defamation League’s definition of antisemitism, which says to be anti-Zionist is to be anti-Jewish. This notion is fundamentally flawed: Zionism is a political ideology, not an identity, and it has been used to justify war crimes and displacement in the name of creating a Jewish state in Palestine. Antisemitism, on the other hand, is a hatred of Jewish people simply due to their religious identity. To equate the two, especially in regards to anti-discrimination policies, is to abuse protections against discrimination in order to silence those expressing political dissent.
NYU has, however, recently been put on a list of 10 universities that will be investigated by Trump’s Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism. If the university’s past responses to bad press is any indication, it will again take steps in order to avoid backlash rather than effectively handling campus issues.
In July 2024, to settle an antisemitism lawsuit filed against NYU the university agreed to implement initiatives to respond to antisemitism, including creating a Title VI coordinator position to investigate discrimination allegations. This past Monday, NYU President Linda Mills appointed David Krieger to serve as the Title VI coordinator — a position that will oversee investigations into alleged discrimination on campus. Krieger has previously been featured on panels sponsored by the ADL, which has routinely encouraged that universities suppress critiques of Zionism on campus. Krieger’s ties to the ADL have caused concern that the position will be abused to target those who express criticism of Israel, rather than to investigate and handle legitimate instances of discrimination.
As of last Monday, NYU was given a B rating on the ADL’s Campus Antisemitism Report Card, a notably higher grade than other institutions on Trump’s antisemitism task force list. In the ADL’s evaluation, it commended NYU’s recent actions — the creation of the Title VI coordinator position, the new required modules on nondiscrimination and anti-harassment, and adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism in its Non-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment policy. It seems that, by moving in step with Trump and the ADL’s agenda, NYU is trying to avoid punitive measures and negative press.
The Trump administration has given two options to universities: either comply with its anti-free speech and anti-Palestinian agenda, or be punished. NYU has shown that it will bend to pressures from the administration instead of speaking out for the rights of its students. It is not just on the issue of student protests that NYU has remained silent. The university has failed to speak up against other policies Trump has implemented that affect students’ lives, such as the anti-immigrant and LGBTQ+ policies, attacks on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs and rollbacks for women’s rights — showing that university leadership does not truly prioritize protecting students from discrimination.
NYU’s loyalty should be to its students and its stated values of free speech and academic freedom, not to an administration that uses fear and intimidation to demand acquiescence. As students are watching their right to free speech being eroded in real time, NYU is not just being silent, but compliant. Students understand the university can’t overturn federal law, but we do expect advocacy and protection where possible, and it is the responsibility of the university to push back on policies that harm and target its community.
WSN’s Opinion section strives to publish ideas worth discussing. The views presented in the Opinion section are solely the views of the writer.
Contact Leila Olukoga at [email protected].
