New York [US], July 24 (ANI): Columbia University has agreed to pay $200 million to the administration of former President Donald Trump in a settlement over allegations that it failed to adequately protect Jewish students from harassment on campus.
The settlement, announced Wednesday, will be paid to the federal government over three years. In return, the government will reinstate a portion of the $400 million in federal research grants that had been frozen or revoked in March. The agreement also includes Columbia’s pledge to comply with federal laws prohibiting the consideration of race in admissions and hiring decisions. Additionally, the university has committed to fulfilling previously agreed measures to address antisemitism and campus unrest, according to The New York Times.
Columbia will also pay $21 million to settle investigations launched by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
“This agreement marks an important step forward after a period of sustained federal scrutiny and institutional uncertainty,” said Claire Shipman, Columbia’s acting president, in a statement. “The settlement was carefully crafted to protect the values that define us and allow our essential research partnership with the federal government to get back on track.”
U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon called the agreement a major milestone in ensuring accountability from institutions receiving taxpayer funding. “The Trump Administration’s deal with Columbia University is a seismic shift in our nation’s fight to hold institutions that accept American taxpayer dollars accountable for antisemitic discrimination and harassment,” McMahon said in a post on X.
Former President Trump also addressed the settlement on his Truth Social platform. “Columbia has also committed to ending their ridiculous DEI policies, admitting students based ONLY on MERIT, and protecting the Civil Liberties of their students on campus,” he wrote. “Numerous other Higher Education Institutions that have hurt so many, and been so unfair and unjust, and have wrongly spent federal money, much of it from our government, are upcoming.”
According to Al Jazeera, Columbia was among several U.S. universities that experienced widespread protests in the spring and summer of 2024 over Israel’s war in Gaza. While many Jewish students and faculty voiced concerns that the protests crossed the line into antisemitism, pro-Palestinian advocates argued that opposition to Israeli government policies was often mischaracterized as hatred of Jews.
The settlement marks one of the largest financial penalties ever imposed on a university for civil rights-related violations and signals increased federal scrutiny of higher education institutions amid rising tensions over campus speech and discrimination.
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