Can Columbia Be Redeemed?

Some weeks back, shortly after news broke of Columbia University’s controversial settlement with the Trump administration, I was honored to be asked for my take by a respected web magazine. But in so writing, I found that I couldn’t really process the settlement without first placing it in the context of Columbia’s broader story, in particular the once-great research university’s decades-long slide to perhaps its lowest point since the Revolutionary War, and the piece ended up a bit too far afield from what the editors were looking for. I published that item myself, and finding that I’ve got more to say, I figured I might as well give the topic another pass.