Crime Today News
By Inderjit Badhwar
In solidarity with my fellow classmates from the Class of 1969 and other graduates of Columbia’s School of Journalism, India Legal republishes this powerful alumni letter to Columbia President Claire Shipman. It comes at a moment when academic freedom in the US is under siege, echoing concerns which are highlighted elsewhere in this issue by Kenneth Tiven’s (also Class of ‘69) exposé on Harvard and other elite campuses under political assault.
In a time when American universities—once citadels of free expression and critical thinking—are being cowed into compliance by political pressure, a powerful and principled stand has emerged from an unexpected, but morally charged quarter: the Columbia Journalism School. In an open letter addressed to Columbia University’s acting president Claire Shipman, distinguished alumni have voiced their deep alarm at the university’s capitulation to the Trump administration’s demands, allegedly made under the pretext of curbing anti-semitism, but, in their view, aimed squarely at stifling dissent and free academic inquiry.
This letter, reproduced in full below, represents far more than a class petition—it is a moral call to arms for journalists, educators, students, and legal scholars, worldwide. It’s a clarion defence of the First Amendment and the ethical foundations of democratic life in America, at a time when these are being tested by the renewed rise of political intimidation cloaked in the garb of patriotism and “national interest”.
India Legal considers it imperative to highlight this protest, not just because it involves its own Editor as an alumnus of one of the world’s most influential journalism schools, but because the issues raised resonate globally. They intersect with our core values as a publication—free speech, judicial oversight, civil liberties, and the rule of law.
This is also why the alumni letter perfectly complements the analysis in our pages by veteran journalist—and classmate—Kenneth Tiven. In his article, “Ivy League Vendetta: Power, Payback, and the Politics of Control”, Tiven documents how elite universities like Harvard and Columbia are under relentless attack from a radical political agenda that seeks to reshape higher education by turning campuses into ideological battlegrounds. As he writes: “The weaponization of funding, criminalization of protest, and politicization of university governance have reached levels unseen since the McCarthy era.” He also quoted a Harvard professor who chillingly observed: “What we’re watching is not a debate—it’s a purge.”
The Columbia alumni letter gives voice to precisely this moment of reckoning. It directly accuses the university’s leadership of “cowardly proffer,” warning that “Columbia has adopted a new and negative leadership role in the academic world: how to give up independence of speech and thought without a fight.”
The signatories’ critique gains even greater poignancy when directed at Shipman herself—a former journalist and foreign correspondent—who is now being held to the same ethical standards she once upheld in her reporting. They write: “You, as a former journalist with significant experience in observing the road to autocracy in Russia, are asking us to abandon our principles and democratic values and join you. We will not do so.”
This is no mere alumni grievance. It is a national—and international—issue. What happens in American higher education echoes in every global institution of learning and law, including India, where universities have also faced recent curbs on protest and academic discourse. If world-renowned institutions surrender to political dictates, the chilling effect will ripple outward, emboldening authoritarianism elsewhere.
We reproduce this letter not only as a gesture of solidarity with the Columbia Class of 1969, but as a warning and a rallying cry. The guardians of academic freedom—journalists, educators, lawyers, and civil society—must not sleepwalk through this moment. The freedoms we take for granted are only as strong as our will to defend them.
Dear President Shipman:
Recently we, as alumni, received your letter touting the “significant progress” Columbia University has made and the “plan outlined to move our community forward.” It is our view that the breath-taking capitulation the university made to the Trump administration under the guise of protecting students against anti-semitism decimates the University’s critical role as a protector of free speech and academic freedom. Unlike Harvard, Princeton and Brown universities, Columbia took not a single step to oppose what was clearly an illegal effort by the federal government to withhold research funds unless its demands for control of academic speech were granted.
With this cowardly proffer eliminating freedom of expression for both students and faculty, Columbia University has adopted a new and negative leadership role in the academic world: how to give up independence of speech and thought without a fight. It has become a ghost of its former self. As a result, the Columbia campus has become a locked-down facility, open only to those who agree to stifle their political views for fear of arrest by the new campus police force or doxing by secretive organizations.
Faced with similar demands, no other university has so quickly made such a concession and given up its students’ and professors’ right of free speech and academic freedom to a political power exercising what are likely illegal actions. As Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor, wrote recently: “If you give in to extortionists, they will extort you and others for more.
If you let bullies get their way, those bullies will bully you and others even more menacingly.” To date, the Trump administration has not even accepted Columbia’s proffer and may demand more. But you had the audacity to ask the alumni—whom the trustees did not deign to consult with before their horrendous concessions—to provide “input about how we can build a shared sense of community” which was already destroyed by the recent unilateral action of the board. You further stated that you want all of us to “come together and work to protect and support this invaluable repository of knowledge, this home to the next generation of intellectual explorers, and this place of great and continuing promise” that you and the board have moved secretly and without integrity to eliminate. Under the conditions in the proffer, Columbia will not be a campus of community, intellectual exploration or promise, but one of suspicion and fear. Why would any student even want to attend such a school? Especially why would foreign students, who currently make up a significant portion of the student body, choose to attend Columbia if every thought they have might be viewed as “un-American” and subject them to discipline or worse? And if anti-Zionism is against US foreign policy today, what new subject will be against that policy tomorrow?
We are journalists and graduates of the Columbia School of Journalism. We believe in the First Amendment and the rights of all persons to express their views, popular or not. If our universities, media and law firms do not stand up for the rights guaranteed by our Constitution, who will? If young people are not allowed to explore unbounded ideas, how will our democracy grow and thrive?
These unconstitutional demands by the Trump administration are not about anti-semitism or protecting the Jewish students at Columbia. They are about intimidation and imposing certain political values on universities and on society and shutting out free discussion and thought. As Prof. Reich predicts, “Once we start down this road, there’s no stopping.” You and the rest of the board are already far down this road. And now you, as a former journalist with significant experience in observing the road to autocracy in Russia, are asking us to abandon our principles and democratic values and join you. We will not do so until you develop a plan to get off this road and restore meaningful free speech and academic freedom to our university.
We call on you to reverse course before it is too late by withdrawing this proffer, working with all of your constituents and other universities under the same threat to determine a credible path forward, including looking at other financial options and challenging the Trump administration’s demands in court. ICE should not be allowed on Columbia’s campus or housing without judicial warrants. The special police unit should be disbanded. And we must question your failure to protect other minority student groups. A credible university would protect all of its students.
We could well be at the start of a long fight. But the universities of our nation need to take up the mantle of leadership necessary to preserve the academic freedom so critical to democracy, instead of cravenly capitulating to a political bully. Other universities are exploring their options. We expect you to change your direction and do the same.
As part of a new direction, we invite you to meet with your fellow journalists and alumni of the Graduate School of Journalism during alumni weekend, May 2-3, 2025, for a discussion of academic and speech freedom.
[Full letter reproduced exactly as above.]
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