Hit from all sides: Columbia University must implement a series of policy changes, many of them intended to quell campus anti-Semitism, in order to restore its relationship with the federal government. Faculty members have already voiced their disapproval for those changes, and now, anti-Israel activist groups like CAIR are working to stop Columbia from cooperating with lawmakers.
CAIR sued Columbia last month on behalf of Mahmoud Khalil and seven other students to halt the flow of internal documents from the Ivy League school to the federal government, our Alana Goodman reports. That includes documents related to pro-Hamas group SJP's campus activities, which the Senate HELP committee recently requested. CAIR says the records could put Khalil and his classmates in danger. A federal judge in New York responded by ordering Columbia to delay the release of the documents.
Though CAIR framed the lawsuit around support for Khalil, the ongoing fight over the SJP-related records suggests the suit "will have broad implications, potentially hindering congressional investigations into anti-Semitism and pro-Hamas groups at Columbia," writes Goodman. Indeed, Columbia appears to be withholding certain documents from lawmakers as a result of the suit: In a Tuesday court filing, it says the SJP documents it intends to submit to Congress do not "include any student records."
READ MORE: CAIR Seeks To Block Columbia University From Submitting SJP-Related Protest Records to Congress
We're all trying to find the girl who did this: To hear top UC Berkeley official Amani Nuru-Jeter tell it, the Trump administration is engaged in an unprecedented assault on academic freedom that threatens the "fate of higher education." She's not exactly the best spokeswoman for academic freedom, our Aaron Sibarium reports.
Long before Trump returned to the White House, Nuru-Jeter, who chairs Berkeley's academic senate, "instituted a series of 'antiracism' requirements for all courses taught at the school of public health," writes Sibarium. "Those requirements included that at least 10 percent of course readings 'focus on/be authored by people from Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC) communities,' and that a third of all guest speakers be 'BIPOC.' Professors also needed to update their syllabi with an 'antiracism' statement that Nuru-Jeter personally helped draft," which called to remove students from class if they "alienate" others.
Now, Nuru-Jeter is one of many higher education officials invoking academic freedom to criticize Trump. "The mandates put in place by Nuru-Jeter," however, "raise questions about the sincerity of that commitment and underscore how, prior to the administration's blitz, schools were more than willing to undermine the autonomy of their professors."
Houston, we have layoff: We reported last week on NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which laid off 900 workers over the course of 2024. Though the cuts impacted staffers tasked with sending rovers to space, they did not touch the lab's chief inclusion officer, Neela Rajendra, who was handed the title of Chief of the Office of Team Excellence and Employee Success, which notably excluded the terms diversity, equity, and inclusion. No more.
The lab parted ways with Rajendra on Thursday, according to an internal email, which lauds the "lasting impact she made to our organization." The newly formed Office of Team Excellence and Employee Success, which was intended to replace Rajendra's DEI team, is being moved to the Office of Human Resources.
Our report on Rajendra's continued employment came shortly after a pair of NASA astronauts were stranded for nine months on the International Space Station. A SpaceX capsule rescued them. In a 2022 presentation, Rajendra criticized the company's "fast-paced" culture and "failure to promote DEI."READ MORE: NASA Jet Propulsion Lab Parts Ways With Top DEI Officer In Wake of Free Beacon Report
Away from the Beacon:
- Stuck between a rock and a hard place: The Trump administration is planning to pursue a consent decree against Columbia University, according to the Wall Street Journal, a move that would force it to comply with policy changes or be held in contempt of court. Columbia could refuse the decree—and almost certainly lose federal funding.
- Iran's ghost fleet takes another hit: The Trump administration slapped additional sanctions on Iran's oil smuggling network, this time targeting four Iranian entities, two ships, and a Chinese storage terminal that have repeatedly demonstrated a "pattern of violating U.S. sanctions on Iran."