Columbia University has agreed to pay $221 million to settle claims by the Trump administration that it failed to address anti-Semitism on campus.
The settlement, announced Wednesday, will restore the “vast majority” of $400 million in federal grants that the Trump administration had frozen, the New York-based institution stated. Columbia will also regain access to billions of dollars in current and future federal funding.
The university said the agreement formalizes reforms announced in March to address harassment against Jews, including hiring additional public safety personnel, modifying disciplinary processes, and promoting “an inclusive and respectful learning environment.”
The settlement also requires Columbia to maintain merit-based admissions and discontinue programs that promote “unlawful efforts to achieve race-based outcomes, quotas [and] diversity targets.”
Columbia will pay the federal government $200 million over three years, plus $21 million to settle Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claims.
Acting President Claire Shipman described the settlement as “substantial” but said the university could not continue in a situation that would “jeopardize our status as a world-leading research institution.”
“We carefully explored all options open to us,” Shipman stated. “We might have achieved short-term litigation victories, but not without incurring deeper long-term damage โ the likely loss of future federal funding, the possibility of losing accreditation, and the potential revocation of visa status of thousands of international students.”
While Columbia did not accept the Trump administration’s findings that it violated civil rights law by ignoring harassment of Jews, Shipman acknowledged the “very serious and painful challenges our institution has faced with antisemitism” and stated “there is still more to do.”
The settlement represents a victory for Trump’s efforts to increase control over higher education, including campus activism supporting Palestine and other causes. Trump called the agreement “historic” on Truth Social, writing that “numerous other Higher Education Institutions that have hurt so many, and been so unfair and unjust, and have wrongly spent federal money” would follow.
Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), a student activist group, criticized the settlement as an effective bribe, posting on X: “Imagine selling your students out just so you can pay Trump $221 million dollars and keep funding genocide.”
Columbia was among dozens of US universities experiencing protests against Israel’s war in Gaza during spring and summer 2024. Many Jewish students and faculty complained that campus demonstrations became anti-Semitic, while pro-Palestinian advocates accused critics of wrongly conflating opposition to Israel with hatred of Jews.
Tuesday, Columbia’s Judicial Board announced it had completed disciplinary proceedings against students who participated in protests at the university’s main library in May and the “Revolt for Rafah” encampment. CUAD reported nearly 80 students were expelled or suspended for one to three years for joining protests, sanctions that “hugely” exceeded precedent for non-Palestine-related demonstrations.
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