Trump Admin Grants Columbia One-Day Extension To Implement Reforms

An agreement to comply would not restore $430 million in federal funding but rather unlock ‘long-term’ negotiations

The Trump administration gave Columbia University a one-day extension to respond to its series of demands, which include a ban on masked protests and the enforcement of disciplinary policies, the Department of Education confirmed to the Washington Free Beacon.

The move came after Columbia requested a two-day extension, the department said, suggesting the school is scrambling to make at least some concessions—though doing so would only unlock “long-term” negotiations rather than guarantee the return of federal funds.

“Agency leads have been engaged in the exchange of information with Columbia University,” the Department of Education said in a statement shared with the Free Beacon. “This extension has been granted until close of business on Friday.”

The administration’s March 13 letter to Columbia, which spells out the “immediate next steps that we regard as a precondition for formal negotiations regarding Columbia University’s continued financial relationship with the United States government,” set a March 20 deadline to comply. With that deadline roughly 24 hours away, the Wall Street Journal reported that Columbia was “getting close to yielding President Trump’s demands to restore $400 million in federal funding.” The administration extended the deadline from there.

The letter came shortly after the administration canceled $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia. It slashed another $30 million in grants late last week, the Free Beacon reported. If Columbia agreed to the demands, it would still not guarantee the restoration of the funds. Instead, it would lead to what the administration calls “a conversation about immediate and long-term structural reforms that will return Columbia to its original mission of innovative research and academic excellence.”

Columbia declined to comment.

The administration’s demands include a mask ban, an implementation of permanent “time, place, and manner rules” governing protests, and an academic receivership for Columbia’s Middle East, South Asian, and African Studies departments. Columbia interim president Katrina Armstrong addressed them in a Wednesday letter to the “Columbia community” but provided no detail beyond a pledge to “engage in constructive dialogue with our federal regulators.”

“Understandably, many inside and outside of our community have voiced concern, asking how we will respond,” Armstrong wrote. “Many bristle at the very idea that an institution like ours—an institution whose very value is premised on free inquiry and free expression—should ever be subject to such a list.”

“Let me be clear about our path forward: it is our utmost responsibility to uphold and deliver on our academic mission, always,” she continued. “We are committed to doing what’s right for Columbia and will not waver from our principles and the values of academic freedom and free expression that have guided this institution for the last 270 years.”

The demands have pit professors at Columbia’s left-wing journalism school against each other, according to Breaker. At internal meetings discussing the demands, one professor, Nina Berman, alleged that her colleagues had engaged in “doxxing,” while another, former journalism school dean Nick Lemann, physically collapsed and was rushed to the hospital.

The funding cuts are part of the administration’s efforts to curb campus anti-Semitism. Columbia, as the Ivy League’s poster child for disruptive and often illegal demonstrations, has faced unique pressure. Almost immediately after Secretary of Education Linda McMahon’s confirmation, the administration announced it was reviewing Columbia’s $5 billion in federal funding.

“Institutions that receive federal funds have a responsibility to protect all students from discrimination. Columbia’s apparent failure to uphold their end of this basic agreement raises very serious questions about the institution’s fitness to continue doing business with the United States government,” McMahon said in a statement.