Columbia University to pay $200m to settle anti-Semitism claims
Under the agreement announced on Wednesday, Columbia will see the 'vast majority' of $400m in federal grants frozen by the Trump administration reinstated, New York-based university said.
Columbia will also regain access to billions of dollars in current and future grants under the deal, the university said.
The university said the agreement formalised reforms announced in March to address harassment against Jews, including the hiring of more public safety personnel, changes to disciplinary processes, and efforts to foster 'an inclusive and respectful learning environment.'
The agreement also commits Columbia to maintaining merit-based admissions and ending programs that promote 'unlawful efforts to achieve race-based outcomes, quotas, diversity targets.'
Claire Shipman, Columbia's acting president, said that while the settlement was 'substantial', the university could not continue with a situation that would 'jeopardize our status as a world-leading research institution.'
'Furthermore, as I have discussed on many occasions with our community, we carefully explored all options open to us,' Shipman said in a statement.
Under the terms of the agreement, $200m will be paid to the federal government over three years, in addition to a $21m payment to settle claims by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Shipman said Columbia did not accept the Trump administration's findings that it had violated civil rights law by turning a blind eye to the harassment of Jews, but acknowledged the 'very serious and painful challenges our institution has faced with antisemitism.'
'We know there is still more to do,' she said.
The settlement marks a victory in Trump's efforts to exert greater control over third-level education, including campus activism in support of Palestine and other causes.
Trump hailed the settlement as 'historic' in a post on his Truth Social platform.
'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,' Trump wrote.
Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a student activist group, slammed the settlement as an effective bribe.
'Imagine selling your students out just so you can pay Trump $221 million dollars and keep funding genocide,' the group said on X.
Columbia was among dozens of US universities that were roiled by protests against Israel's war in Gaza throughout the spring and summer of 2024.
Many Jewish students and faculty complained that the campus demonstrations veered into anti-Semitism, while pro-Palestinian advocates have accused critics of often wrongly conflating opposition to Israel with the hatred of Jews.
On Tuesday, Columbia University Judicial Board's announced that it had finalised disciplinary proceedings against students who took part in protest at the university's main library in May or joined the 'Revolt for Rafah' encampment last year.
Columbia University Apartheid Divest said nearly 80 students had been expelled or suspended for between one and three years for joining the protests, sanctions which it said 'hugely exceed' the precedent for non-Palestine-related demonstrations.
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