Columbia University Faces $5 Billion Federal Funding Ultimatum Over Anti-Semitism 👉 Updatem News

The Trump administration cancelled $400 million in grants to the university and has probed 60 other institutions over alleged failures to combat anti-Semitism.

As the 2024–2025 academic year winds down, higher education institutions across the nation will be watching Columbia University closely.

On March 7, President Donald Trump’s administration rescinded $400 million in federal grants to Columbia due to the school’s “continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.”

Columbia, which receives more than $5 billion in federal grants, was among the five schools initially identified in an investigation by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights that cited an explosion in anti-Semitism on American university campuses following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks against Israel.

The scope of the investigations was later expanded to 60 additional colleges and universities, according to a March 10 letter from the civil rights office.

The New York City-based Ivy League school is an early example of how Trump’s executive orders banning anti-Semitism and other practices that violate the 1964 Civil Rights Act can play out.

Colleges and universities with $1-billion-plus endowments were told they’d be scrutinized first.

Former Columbia University President Nemat “Minouche” Shafik resigned in August, the third Ivy League president to do so last year following months of criticism on how she handled protests against the war in Gaza.

Students set up and occupied pro-Palestinian encampments on the campus for six weeks, calling on the school to divest from corporations supporting Israel.

There were several clashes between protesters and police before the encampments were disbanded in early June, and Shafik was criticized for failing to de-escalate the situation or address the anti-Semitism and the disruptions these events caused to the university.

Following the initial announcement of the $400 million funding loss, interim president Katrina Armstong promised to combat anti-Semitism and said she would work with the Trump administration in hopes of reversing the federal aid cut.

“Columbia is taking the government’s action very seriously,” Armstrong said in a March 7 announcement.

“I want to assure the entire Columbia community that we are committed to working with the federal government to address their legitimate concerns.

“To that end, Columbia can, and will, continue to take serious action toward combatting antisemitism on our campus. This is our No. 1 priority.”

A week after announcing the cuts to Columbia, the Department of Education followed up with a letter to Armstrong, outlining “pre-negotiation” steps for future funding considerations. The deadline for compliance is March 20.

This includes issuing suspensions for students who violated campus policies during pro-Palestinian encampments or building occupations that got out of control.

It also requires the office of the president to take over disciplinary matters from the university judicial board.

Columbia is now required to implement a mask ban so that students cannot conceal their identity; however, if a student identification badge is visible, exceptions are allowed for health or religious reasons, the letter said.

The letter says Columbia’s Middle East, South Asian, and African Studies departments must be placed under academic receivership for a minimum of five years.

This measure requires university administrators to take control of those programs from academic chairs and monitor classes for anti-Semitic activity.

Lastly, the letter says, Columbia must reform its admissions and international recruiting practices “to conform with federal law and policy” and avoid bringing in new anti-Semitic students.

In a March 15 statement, Armstrong said: “Columbia will stand by its values” but did not acknowledge the Office of Civil Rights findings or the sanctions.

“We must continually reaffirm our commitment to freedom of expression, due process, and the rights of all members of this community,” she said.

The Epoch Times reached out to Columbia University to ask administrators if they plan to comply with the conditions by the March 20 deadline.

Jewish organizations applauded Trump’s rapid response to combatting anti-Semitism on campuses but cautioned against any actions that violate the constitutional rights of all students.

“The Anti-Defamation League welcomes attention and action to combat anti-Semitism on campus and urges that any action taken address the problem directly and is constructive, helping to rebuild a welcoming environment for Jewish students on campus,” ADL said in an email response to The Epoch Times.

“Of course, it is crucial that consequences must be lawful, preserve constitutionally protected free speech, and be enforced in ways that are consistent with due process.”

The American Jewish Committee issued a March 11 statement praising the Trump administration for holding Columbia accountable while also voicing concerns that “life-saving scientific research and other critical fields that have little connection to the areas where antisemitism has manifested may be harmed by arbitrary, across the board cuts to grants and research contracts.”

“The subjugation of universities to state power is a hallmark of autocracy,” Todd Wolfson, the organization’s president, said in a March 14 statement.

“Columbia University’s immediate submission and betrayal of the core mission of higher education reflects cowardice and capitulation to a government that seems intent on destroying U.S. higher education.”

Following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the subsequent campus protests, an increasing number of colleges and universities have adopted policies of “institutional neutrality” where they will no longer take official positions on contested political issues, the Heterodox Academy notes in a March research report.

By the end of 2024, 148 institutions were on that list, up from just eight the year before.

Columbia University, despite the sanctions, is listed as adopting a policy of institutional neutrality last year, along with fellow Ivy League schools Princeton, Cornell, Harvard, Yale, University of Pennsylvania, and Dartmouth.

Brown adopted the policy in 2022, according to the report.

Salman Khan, co-founder of the Muslim Campus Life organization, said adopting a policy of institutional neutrality is a good first step toward avoiding escalating civil unrest at colleges and universities, but he said the policy does not address unfair treatment of Muslim students.

The Trump administration, he told The Epoch Times, “is trying to make Columbia an example—for better or for worse.”

Khan visited campuses throughout the Northeast and West Coast, and some prominent schools in the South and Midwest.

He documented 143 cases of Islamophobia but said about 90 percent of Muslim students he met never reported incidents for fear of repercussions.

This includes a woman stabbed in the palm and told by her assailant, “Now you have blood on your hand.”

He said deporting students who participated in protests or revoking their degrees after graduation are extreme and unnecessary measures and noted that many Muslims accused of anti-Semitic behavior were blacklisted by fellow students on the Canary Mission website, which hurt their employment prospects.

“It’s clear that they’ve brought the national conversation to a different place,” he said. “It’s getting to a point where we care about one community and not the other.”

Original News Source Link – Epoch Times

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