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After months of negotiations to restore federal funding, Columbia University has reached an agreement with the Trump administration to resolve federal investigations into allegations from the government that the school violated anti-discrimination laws.
The university will pay a $200 million settlement over three years to the federal government, according to a press release, and Columbia has agreed to settle probes brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for $21 million. Under the deal, a majority of federal grants that were terminated or paused back in March will be reinstated. The school said that the it will maintain autonomy and authority over faculty hiring, admissions, and academic decision-making.
“This agreement marks an important step forward after a period of sustained federal scrutiny and institutional uncertainty,” said Acting University President Claire Shipman 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. Importantly, it safeguards our independence, a critical condition for academic excellence and scholarly exploration, work that is vital to the public interest.”
Education SecretaryLinda McMahon called the deal “a seismic shift in our nation’s fight to hold institutions that accept American taxpayer dollars accountable for antisemitic discrimination and harassment.”
“Columbia’s reforms are a road map for elite universities that wish to regain the confidence of the American public by renewing their commitment to truth-seeking, merit and civil debate,” she said in a statement. “I believe they will ripple across the higher education sector and change the course of campus culture for years to come.”
Earlier this year, the Trump administration sent a letter to the university with nine demands to meet as a precondition to negotiations surrounding its federal funding. With $400 million in key funding on the line, Columbia concededand agreed to ban students from wearing masks on campus for the purpose of concealing identity during protests, with exceptions for religious and health reasons. It also agreed to increase its campus security by hiring 36 new security officers, who unlike in the past, will have the authority to arrest students, and to install a new senior vice provostto monitor the department of Middle East, South Asian and African Studies.
However, the university’s funding was still not restored after the capitulations, and negotiations stretched for months.
Columbia is the first university to reach a settlement over allegations from the Trump administration of antisemitism on campus. Harvard University filed a federal lawsuit against the government and accused it of violating the First Amendment after the administration froze billions of dollars in federal funding. The Ivy League school and the Trump administration are currently battling in court over restoring more than $2 billion in federal funding.
