The Trump administration said Friday that it’s pulling $400 million from Columbia University, cancelling grants and contracts because of what the government describes as the Ivy League school’s failure to squelch antisemitism on campus.
The notice came five days after federal agencies announced they were considering orders to stop work on $51 million in contracts with the New York City university and reviewing its eligibility for over $5 billion in federal grants going forward. And it came after Columbia set up a new disciplinary committee and ramped up its own investigations into students critical of Israel, alarming free speech advocates.
But Columbia’s efforts evidently didn’t go far enough for the federal government.
“Universities must comply with all federal antidiscrimination laws if they are going to receive federal funding. For too long, Columbia has abandoned that obligation to Jewish students studying on its campus,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement Friday.
She later posted on X that she’d had “a productive meeting” with the university’s interim president, Katrina Armstrong, and anticipated “working together to protect all students.”
Columbia vowed to work with the government to try to get the money back.
“We take Columbia’s legal obligations seriously and understand how serious this announcement is and are committed to combatting antisemitism and ensuring the safety and well-being of our students, faculty and staff,” the university said in a statement.
It is not clear which research, projects or activities will be affected at Columbia, which operates a medical centre among many other functions. The university said it was reviewing the announcement. An inquiry was sent to the federal Education Department, which issued Friday’s announcement along with the Health and Justice departments and the General Services Administration.
While the details aren’t yet certain, the announcement comes as research project leaders at Columbia are figuring out their budgets for the next academic year, and they’re “very worried about what this means,” said oceanographer Robert Newton, a retired senior research scientist who continues to teach at the university.
Newton, who is Jewish, sees the government’s complaints as based on “a complete falsehood” about Columbia being awash in antisemitism and indifferent to some Jewish students’ reports of facing hostility.
But the $400 million cutoff was welcome news to Columbia/Barnard Hillel, a Jewish student group. Executive Director Brian Cohen said he hoped it would be “a wake-up call to Columbia’s administration and trustees to take antisemitism and the harassment of Jewish students and faculty seriously.” (CNN)
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