News brief

Columbia agrees to policy changes. Columbia University, in New York, agreed to implement a host of policy changes, including overhauling its rules for protests and conducting an immediate review of its Middle Eastern studies department. The announcement Friday came one week after the Trump administration presented the Ivy League school with a list of demands to continue receiving federal funding. That ultimatum was widely seen in academia as an attack on academic freedom. In a letter, the university’s interim president vowed to appoint a senior vice provost to review the Middle East studies department and to ban the wearing of face masks to conceal one’s identity on campus.