Yale professor moving to U of T due to 'far-right' Trump administration's pressure on universities

A Yale University professor is leaving the U.S. and taking a position at the University of Toronto (U of T) due to what he says is a "far-right regime" under President Donald Trump. 

"The United States is in the process of an autocratic takeover and it's directed by a regime that I don't think will want to leave power," said Jason Stanley, a professor of philosophy. 

"Its not just Donald Trump. It's the machine behind Donald Trump." 

Stanley, whose books include How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them, said he was considering joining U of T's Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy for over a year. But he decided to move after Columbia University made sweeping changes to its policies last week under pressure from the U.S. government. 

Earlier this month, the Trump administration cancelled $400 million US in research grants and other funding to Columbia over the university's handling of protests against Israel's military campaign in Gaza. 

As a precondition to restoring those funds — along with billions more in future grants — federal officials demanded the university immediately enact nine separate reforms to its academic and security policies. In a response Friday, the university's interim president Katrina Armstrong indicated Columbia would implement nearly all of them. 

"Columbia's complete and utter capitulation, really giving up to an autocratic regime, showed me that the universities are not going to stand together," Stanley said. 

Meanwhile, U of T has told Stanley they intend to make the Munk School "a world centre of democracy in these emergency times," he said. 

"It was just too obvious to me that I had to come." 

CBC Toronto has reached out to U of T for comment. 

The Trump administration's attacks on Columbia University is unprecedented in part because it is so ambiguous, said Jonathan Zimmerman, professor of the history of education at the University of Pennsylvania. 

The public "[doesn't] know any of the details" behind the government's claim that Columbia is tolerating antisemitism on campus, said Zimmerman, who is a Columbia alum himself. 

Among the university's policy changes, he said the most concerning is the appointment of a senior provost to review several programs and departments covering the Middle East, including the Center of Palestine Studies and the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies. 

The appointment appeared to be a concession to the Trump administration's most contentious demand: that the university place its Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies Department under "academic receivership for a minimum of five years."