The elite universities of this country have become notorious for their discrimination, arrogance, and poor priorities. Near the top of the list was Columbia University, which demonstrated a striking disregard for basic civility and particularly, its Jewish students.

But Columbia is on the road to changing its ways and is making amends with the community, as well as in its relationship with the United States:

Columbia University has disciplined over 70 students for participating in two student-led protests, a source familiar with the matter said.

The university confirmed in a statement Tuesday that it was punishing students who participated in the protest at the school’s Butler Library, where at least 80 people were detained, as well as a similar demonstration during its annual alumni weekend last year.

In response to the university’s offenses, the federal government had cut hundreds of millions of dollars, leverage which brought Columbia to heel:

Columbia has agreed to implement a series of policy reforms in an attempt to regain the federal funding.

That included overhauling the student disciplinary process and adopting a new definition of antisemitism.

Columbia has taken substantive and serious steps to meet the expectations of the Trump Administration. One of those steps is responding to the Supreme Court’s banning the application of affirmative action and paying penalties for their past decisions:

The Trump administration has won unprecedented concessions from Columbia University in a sweeping settlement — with the Ivy League school paying more than $220 million and pledging to reverse racially discriminatory practices and resolve civil rights violations against Jewish students, The Post can exclusively reveal.

The settlement, under which Columbia will agree to submit to independent monitoring to ensure it is complying with merit-based hiring and admissions requirements, is likely to put pressure on other schools —like Harvard — that have crossed the White House over tolerance of extreme Jew-hatred on campus since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas against Israel.

Especially noteworthy are the severity of the actions that Columbia took to punish the students who were involved in the disruptive protests:

Fox News learned two-thirds of the more than 70 students were expelled or suspended, according to sources.

The university is also not standing by any professors that may choose to continue with their pro-Hamas “activism,” a move which drew anger from faculty and a student group known as Columbia University Apartheid Divest:

‘Columbia has no intention of defending its students or faculty from the government’s crackdown on Palestinian activism, instead it actively joins hands with the fascist state to sell out its community.’

…41 of the roughly 100 members of the university’s history department warned the university against allowing the administration to interfere in its policy. They compared the administration's actions to attempts by ‘authoritarian regimes’ to seek control over independent academic institutions.

The response from the faculty is ironic, given their participation in the protests and their support of Hamas. The Trump Administration is trying to ensure that everyone at the university, even Jewish students, can study and learn without threats of violence. The interim president of Columbia has stated the intent to support freedom and neutrality for the future:

Columbia also committed to ‘greater institutional neutrality’ and said it is ‘working with a faculty committee to establish an institution-wide policy implementing this stance.’ The university added that it will review its admissions procedures to ‘ensure unbiased admission processes,’ as the Trump administration requested.

Let’s hope that other elite universities will come to their senses and recognize that providing a balanced environment is the way to ensure the benefits and integrity of higher education for the future.

Image from Grok.