After Columbia University caved to Trump’s extortion to reclaim funding and control, I wrote to my alma mater to express my disappointment. Now Brown Univ. has joined Columbia and the University of Penn. in this shameful abdication of their roles as institutions of higher learning, and intellectual and social responsibility.

I urge everyone who is concerned about academic freedom and the slide into autocracy to write to their alma mater and make their feelings known. Here is my letter to Columbia’s President Claire Shipman:

“Dear Claire Shipman,

I am a Columbia University Graduate (School of Public Health ’90) and a Columbia National Cancer Institute Fellow in Epidemiology from 1987-1991.

I am disgusted with your bowing to the Trump regime’s mafia-like tactics and your bending of the knee to their outrageous demands. Surely you know that caving to bullies only invites them to escalate their demands. You are also encouraging Trump’s anti-democratic impulses and surrendering Columbia’s precious reputation as an independent institution of higher learning.

Instead of being proud of my Columbia pedigree, I am ashamed of my alma mater. I will no longer recommend Columbia to the students I mentor and advise.

Shame on you!”

Jack Mayer

Middlebury