Alan Zendell, September 25, 2025

I am a graduate of Columbia College, Class of 1964. We were always an extremely activist class, and at an average age of 82, this elite group of alumni still is. Fifty-six of us recently sent the following letter to the Columbia Board, urging them to declare the coerced agreement with the Trump administration void. The agreement is nothing more than a Mafia-style protection racket using a false pretext based on a bizarre definition of anti-Semitism that declares any University that permits criticism of the Israeli govenment to be anti-Semitic. It also requires Columbia to make an extortion payment of $221 Million.

While most of America wrings their hands in despair, some of us are taking positive action to fight back against Donald Trump’s quest for autocracy.

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Sept. 22, 2025

Dear Members of the Columbia University Board of Trustees, Acting President Shipman and Dean Sorett,  

Following up on our Class of 1964 alumni letter of last June to the University and College, published in the Columbia Spectator, we are  fully aware and sympathetic to the unprecedented and lawless pressures imposed upon the University by the Trump administration.  Yet we must express our concern that Columbia’s capitulation to tyranny has done grave damage to the University’s reputation, to academic freedom, to the cause of human rights, and to democracy in America.  We propose actions to undo as much of the damage as is still possible:  

1. Disavow the coerced agreement with the Trump administration.  
2. Sue in federal court to rescind all agreements made with the Trump administration and rescind the coerced payments.  
3. Adopt an anti-Semitism definition that makes it clear that criticizing Israel for its policies or for committing war crimes is not prejudice against the Jewish people.  

Time is supposed to heal, but in the time that has elapsed since Columbia chose to bend the knee to a dangerous demagogue, the reverse has happened. Now that we have all read the agreement, and we’ve seen how another great university, Harvard, handled the same challenge Columbia faced, many alumni in the Class of 1964 are even more disappointed by the way the University was blackmailed.  

Unlike Harvard’s courageous decision to fight back, Columbia eschewed Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny first principle of opposition: “Do not obey in advance—most of the power of authoritarians is freely given.”  In a United States district court decision finding that Trump’s authoritarian assault aimed at Harvard, as well as Columbia and other universities, violated the First Amendment, amounted to unconstitutional coercion and retaliation, and violated  Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, the court found that the Trump administration “used [anti-Semitism] as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically motivated assault on this country’s premier universities… jeopardize[ing] decades of research and the welfare of all those who could stand to benefit from that research, as well as reflect a disregard for the rights protected by the Constitution and federal statutes.” Subsequent reports state that withheld research monies will soon begin to flow to Harvard.,  

The agreement between Columbia and the Government begins with the disclaimer that it implies no guilt on the part of the University, yet it is very clear that Columbia was forced to acquiesce to the “smokescreen” charge of anti-Semitism to retain its medical research funding.     

 Without consulting either its own  faculty specialists, and contrary to the University’s own Task Force on Anti-Semitism,  Columbia adopted a controversial and politicized definition of anti-semitism that  would deem as anti-semitic faculty or student criticism of the policies of the state of Israel. See NPR’s report on its impacts on academic freedom at Columbia.  

The University coughed up extortion payments in the amount of $221,000,000. Having failed to enlist support and form alliances with other elite universities— which we urged in our June letter to you—the University was forced to capitulate with barely a whimper. The $221,000,000 “fine” was clearly agreed to under duress, and we urge the University to challenge that extortion in court. Don’t expect alumni to replace those funds – demand that the unwarranted fine be rescinded.  

We understand the pressure President Shipman faced, and we fully recognize that Trump’s extortionate actions jeopardized critical ongoing medical research. As former provost Jonathan Cole  concluded in his Times op–ed of last spring:   

“We are in a fight for survival, and appeasement never works. Despite platitudes to the contrary, Columbia’s leaders have weakened our community and our leadership among the greatest educational institutions in the world. This is not the way to fight Mr. Trump’s efforts at silencing our great American universities. If we don’t resist collectively by all legal means and by social influence and legislative pressure, we are apt to see the destruction of our most revered institutions and the enormous benefits they accrue to America.”  

An open admission that the University was forced to commit a grievous error is the only way it can move forward from here. Declare, especially in light of the Harvard court decision, that your coerced agreement with the Government is void, sue to rescind and recover any extortion payments, and ally ourselves with Harvard and any other schools that chose to fight. Adopt a depoliticized definition of anti-Semitism such as the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism. 

Do so publicly and with contrition, and you will not only win back the support of your alumni, but should your court actions succeed, your victory could be the fulcrum that begins the process of overturning Trump’s attempt to dictate what educators, attorneys, in fact, every American may teach or say.