Columbia joins the higher education community in applauding the result of today's hearing in court in a lawsuit brought by MIT and Harvard and joined by Columbia and many other institutions. In fewer than five minutes the Government "agreed to rescind the July 6, 2020 Policy Directive and the July 7, 2020 FAQ, and has also agreed to rescind their implementation. The Government will return to the March 9, 2020 and March 13, 2020 policy."
The fall 2020 policy directive would have forced international students to leave the U.S. if they were enrolled in a program of study that was entirely online without any in-person class.
See President Bollinger's statement here.
