In an unprecedented deal, Columbia University agreed to pay the Trump administration $221 million to restore research funds the administration dropped due to the school's failure to protect Jewish students and faculty during the pro-Hamas protests that rocked the campus in 2023-24.
The Trump administration also uncovered some egregious violations of civil rights laws in its admissions and hiring practices. The settlement — the first in what promises to be many such payouts by schools under investigation by the Education Department — could serve as a template for settling other federal enforcement actions being taken against several elite institutions.
Acting President Claire Shipman said the deal “marks an important step forward after a period of sustained federal scrutiny and institutional uncertainty” and that it “safeguards our independence, a critical condition for academic excellence and scholarly exploration.” The statement added that Columbia "will retain control of faculty hiring, admissions, and curricular decisions," according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.
In March 2024, the government announced the cancellation of $400 million in grants and other research funds in light of the school's inaction in the face of attacks and harassment of Jewish students and faculty. The government provided Colombia with a list of actions that it would need to take before talks to restore the funding could begin. One of those preconditions was placing the Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African studies department under academic receivership. That's where the most egregious antisemitic faculty members were situated.
One outside expert thought the agreement was as good as Columbia could expect. “Columbia couldn’t tolerate the administration holding up billions of dollars in current and future grants, so they paid what is essentially ransom,” said Michael C. Dorf, a professor of law at Cornell University. “The ransom that they ended up paying strikes me as a pretty good value if you decide you’re going to pay ransom. But the problem with paying ransom is that it incentivizes the taking of more hostages.”
Columbia community members had mixed reactions to the deal.
Brian Cohen, the executive director of the Kraft Center for Jewish Student Life, praised the deal as “an important recognition” that “antisemitism at Columbia is real, and it has had a tangible impact on Jewish students’ sense of safety and belonging and, in turn, their civil rights.”
The agreement will be overseen by a third-party monitor, Bart M. Schwartz, co-founder and chairman of the investigations firm Guidepost Solutions. For civil rights violations, the school will pay $100 million annually for three years, with $21 million allocated to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The university had previously agreed to work to "diversify" its faculty by recruiting more conservative professors. What progress, if any, has been made toward that promise is unknown.
Marcel Agüeros, a professor of astronomy and secretary of Columbia’s AAUP [American Association of University Professors] chapter, noted that though he understands the university is trying to protect itself against an “existential threat,” paying the federal government is “also absurd, because what Columbia is pledging to do is to follow the law. And at no point has anyone demonstrated that Columbia has not followed the law.”
Elite schools have been hiding behind that excuse for decades. Sticking to the letter of the law while sneering at its intent by minimally enforcing rules against antisemitism and in favor of intellectual diversity cannot be tolerated. Claiming "Well, we followed the rules" while doing the bare minimum to protect students and faculty is no longer acceptable.
The university recently expelled nearly 80 students involved in a takeover of the library earlier this year. The school also announced it would be working with Jewish groups, including the Anti-Defamation League, to teach courses on antisemitism.
It's a start.
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