Columbia University to pay over $255 million to resolve Trump probes
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Columbia University disciplined more than 70 student protesters who occupied a campus library in May.
PHOTO: HIROKO MASUIKE/NYTIMES
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WASHINGTON - Columbia University said on July 23 it will pay more than US$200 million (S$255 million) to the US government in a settlement with President Donald Trump’s administration to resolve federal probes and to have most of its suspended federal funding restored.
Mr Trump has targeted universities including Columbia since returning to the White House in January over the pro-Palestinian student protest movement that roiled college campuses in 2024.
He welcomed the agreement between his administration and Columbia in a post on social media late on July 23. In March, the Trump administration said it was penalising Columbia over how it handled last year’s protests
“Under today’s agreement, a vast majority of the federal grants which were terminated or paused in March 2025 - will be reinstated and Columbia’s access to billions of dollars in current and future grants will be restored,” the university said in a statement.
The university said it has also agreed to settle investigations brought by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for US$21 million, and that its deal with the Trump administration preserved Columbia’s “autonomy and authority over faculty hiring, admissions and academic decision-making”.
After the government canceled funding, the school acquiesced later in March to a series of demands that included scrutiny of departments offering courses on the Middle East and other concessions that were widely condemned by US academics. Last week, Columbia adopted a controversial definition of antisemitism that equates it with opposition to Zionism. The school said it would no longer engage with pro-Palestinian group Columbia University Apartheid Divest.
“Imagine selling your students out just so you can pay Trump US$221 million dollars and keep funding genocide,” the pro-Palestinian group said on Wednesday, calling the settlement a bribe. Israel denies genocide accusations in Gaza and casts its military action as “self-defence” after a deadly October 2023 attack by Palestinian Hamas militants. Campus protesters demanded an end to US support for Israel’s devastating military assault on Gaza and a commitment that the university will cease investing any of its US$14.8 billion endowment in weapons makers and companies that support Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon said Columbia agreed “to discipline student offenders for severe disruptions of campus operations, make structural changes to their Faculty Senate, bring viewpoint diversity to their Middle Eastern studies programs, eliminate race preferences from their hiring and admissions practices, and end diversity, equity and inclusion programs.”
The government has labeled pro-Palestinian protesters as antisemitic. Protesters, including some Jewish groups, say the government has wrongly conflated their criticism of Israel’s actions with antisemitism and their advocacy for Palestinian rights with support for extremism. The announcement came a day after Columbia disciplined dozens of students over a May pro-Palestinian protest in which demonstrators seized its main library.
The agreement asks Columbia to “undertake a comprehensive review of its international admissions processes and policies,” according to the deal’s terms.
Columbia is required to designate within 30 days an administrator answerable to the university president and responsible for overseeing the deal’s compliance.
The deal requires Columbia to appoint an additional administrator to look at alleged antisemitism and suggest recommendations. Rights advocates have also raised concerns about anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab bias during the Israel-Gaza war.
The Trump administration has not announced steps to tackle Islamophobia. Mr Trump has also attempted to use federal funding leverage with other institutions, including Harvard University. His administration has tried deporting foreign pro-Palestinian students, including at Columbia, but faced judicial roadblocks.
Rights advocates have raised due process, academic freedom and free speech concerns. REUTERS
