Columbia University agrees to pay more than $220M in deal with Trump to
restore federal funding
[July 24, 2025]
By CAROLYN THOMPSON
NEW YORK (AP) — Columbia University announced Wednesday it has reached a
deal with the Trump administration to pay more than $220 million to the
federal government to restore federal research money that was canceled
in the name of combating antisemitism on campus.
Under the agreement, the Ivy League school will pay a $200 million
settlement over three years, the university said. It will also pay $21
million to resolve alleged civil rights violations against Jewish
employees that occurred following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on
Israel, the White House said.
“This agreement marks an important step forward after a period of
sustained federal scrutiny and institutional uncertainty," acting
University President Claire Shipman said.
The school had been threatened with the potential loss of billions of
dollars in government support, including more than $400 million in
grants canceled earlier this year. The administration pulled the funding
because of what it described as the university’s failure to squelch
antisemitism on campus during the Israel-Hamas war.
Columbia has since agreed to a series of demands laid out by the
Republican administration, including overhauling the university’s
student disciplinary process and applying a contentious, federally
endorsed definition of antisemitism not only to teaching but to a
disciplinary committee that has been investigating students critical of
Israel.
Wednesday’s agreement — which does not include an admission of
wrongdoing — codifies those reforms while preserving the university’s
autonomy, Shipman said.
‘Columbia’s reforms are a roadmap,' Trump administration says
Education Secretary Linda McMahon called the deal “a seismic shift in
our nation’s fight to hold institutions that accept American taxpayer
dollars accountable for antisemitic discrimination and harassment.”
“Columbia’s reforms are a roadmap for elite universities that wish to
regain the confidence of the American public by renewing their
commitment to truth-seeking, merit, and civil debate,” McMahon said in a
statement.
As part of the agreement, Columbia agreed to a series of changes
previously announced in March, including reviewing its Middle East
curriculum to make sure it was “comprehensive and balanced” and
appointing new faculty to its Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies.
It also promised to end programs “that promote unlawful efforts to
achieve race-based outcomes, quotes, diversity targets or similar
efforts.”
The university will also have to issue a report to a monitor assuring
that its programs “do not promote unlawful DEI goals.”
In a post Wednesday night on his Truth Social platform, President Donald
Trump said Columbia had “committed to ending their ridiculous DEI
policies, admitting students based ONLY on MERIT, and protecting the
Civil Liberties of their students on campus.”
He also warned, without being specific, “Numerous other Higher Education
Institutions that have hurt so many, and been so unfair and unjust, and
have wrongly spent federal money, much of it from our government, are
upcoming.”
Crackdown follows Columbia protests
The pact comes after months of uncertainty and fraught negotiations at
the more than 270-year-old university. It was among the first targets of
Trump’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian campus protests and on colleges
that he asserts have allowed Jewish students be threatened and harassed.
[to top of second column]
|
Columbia’s own antisemitism task force found last summer that Jewish
students had faced verbal abuse, ostracism and classroom humiliation
during the spring 2024 demonstrations.
Other Jewish students took part in the protests, however, and
protest leaders maintain they aren’t targeting Jews but rather
criticizing the Israeli government and its war in Gaza.
Columbia’s leadership — a revolving door of three interim presidents
in the last year — has declared that the campus climate needs to
change.
Columbia agrees to question international students
Also in the settlement is an agreement to ask prospective
international students “questions designed to elicit their reasons
for wishing to study in the United States,” and establishes
processes to make sure all students are committed to “civil
discourse.”
In a move that would potentially make it easier for the Trump
administration to deport students who participate in protests,
Columbia promised to provide the government with information, upon
request, of disciplinary actions involving student-visa holders
resulting in expulsions or suspensions.
Columbia on Tuesday announced it would suspend, expel or revoke
degrees from more than 70 students who participated in a
pro-Palestinian demonstration inside the main library in May and an
encampment during alumni weekend last year.
The pressure on Columbia began with a series of funding cuts. Then
Mahmoud Khalil, a former graduate student who had been a visible
figure in the protests, became the first person detained in the
Trump administration’s push to deport pro-Palestinian activists who
aren’t U.S. citizens.
Next came searches of some university residences amid a federal
Justice Department investigation into whether Columbia concealed
“illegal aliens” on campus. The interim president at the time
responded that the university was committed to upholding the law.
University oversight expands
Columbia was an early test case for the Trump administration as it
sought closer oversight of universities that the Republican
president views as bastions of liberalism. Yet it soon was
overshadowed by Harvard University, which became the first higher
education institution to defy Trump’s demands and fight back in
court.
The Trump administration has used federal research funding as its
primary lever in its campaign to reshape higher education. More than
$2 billion in total has also been frozen at Cornell, Northwestern,
Brown and Princeton universities.
Administration officials pulled $175 million from the University of
Pennsylvania in March over a dispute around women’s sports. They
restored it when school officials agreed to update records set by
transgender swimmer Lia Thomas and change their policies.
The administration also is looking beyond private universities.
University of Virginia President James Ryan agreed to resign in June
under pressure from a U.S. Justice Department investigation into
diversity, equity and inclusion practices. A similar investigation
was opened this month at George Mason University.
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
