We need MEGA -- Make Education Great Again.

Dozens of masked anti-Israel protesters stormed Columbia University's Butler Library as students prepared Wednesday to study for end-of-year exams.

Video posted on social media shows a large group of activists shoving past a security guard at the library's front entrance, who tried in vain to stop the mob but was quickly overcome.

Once inside, they draped large signs over bookshelves, one declaring the library a "liberated zone" and another bearing the name of Bassel al-Araj, a Palestinian activist killed by Israel Defense Forces in a 2017 raid in the West Bank -- though they misspelled his first name as "Basel."

The raucous demonstrators then donned keffiyeh headscarves, and beat drums while clapping to chants of "free, free Palestine."

The school has been on alert since rumors circulated late last month that protesters were planning on re-establishing the campus tent encampments that plagued the Ivy League school for much of last spring.

Columbia "University" has axed 180 "researchers," mostly doing "studies" designed to make arguments for left-wing causes, following Trump's freezing of federal funds.

John Sexton spotlights this Very Sad Story from the New York Times about the quality "research" that will now go unfunded:

Tamara Sussman, a researcher in psychiatry at Columbia, had a federal grant canceled in March for research that examined the consequences of structural racism on substance use risk in Puerto Rican adolescents. The research assistant that she had recently hired was among those let go.

"This is a really hard time for anyone who wants to do research, but particularly for people who are starting out," Dr. Sussman said Tuesday. "It is very disheartening to see the wheels of science kind of grinding to a halt in certain ways."

Linda McMahon to Harvard University: Drop dead.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon is telling Harvard University that it should no longer ask for grant funding, as "none will be provided," in a letter to University President Alan Garber.

McMahon's scathing letter called out the supposedly elite university for for becoming embroiled in plagiarism scandals, needing remedial math, and engaging in "ugly racism." She also slammed the school for hiring far-left mayors, Bill de Blasio of New York City and Lori Lightfoot of Chicago, saying, "This is like hiring the captain of the Titanic to teach navigation to future captains of the sea."

"Harvard University has made a mockery of this country's higher education system. It has invited foreign students, who engage in violent behavior and show contempt for the United States of America, to its campus," McMahon wrote. "In every way, Harvard has failed to abide by its legal obligations, its ethical and fiduciary duties, its transparency responsibilities. and any semblance of academic rigor. It had scrapped standardized testing requirements and a normalized grading system. This year Harvard was forced to adopt an embarrassing 'remedial math' program for undergraduates. Why is it, we ask, that Harvard has to teach simple and basic mathematics, when it is supposedly so hard to get into this 'acclaimed university?' Who is getting in under such a low standard when others, with fabulous grades and a great understanding of the highest levels of mathematics, are being rejected?"

McMahon made clear to Harvard that the federal government was willing to keep federal funding if the institution was committed to complying with federal law, protect students, and end its racial preferences by finally abiding by the Supreme Court's decision to end affirmative action.

Harvard would need to return to a meritocratic system for admissions and hiring, end "unlawful programs that promote crude identity stereotypes," and comply with law enforcement, including with the Department of Homeland Security. Doing so, McMahon wrote, would "advance the best interests of Harvard University, so it can reclaim its status a respected educational institution."

"Given these and other concerning allegations, this letter is to inform you that Harvard should no longer seek GRANTS from the federal government, since none will be provided," she said. "Harvard will cease to be a publicly funded institution and can instead operate as a privately-funded institution, drawing on its colossal endowment, and raising money from its large base of wealthy alumni."

At the "University" of Washington: