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Vox
36 minutes ago
- Politics
- Vox
The Columbia deal with Trump is a blueprint. All of higher ed should fear what comes next.
covers politics Vox. She first joined Vox in 2019, and her work has also appeared in Politico, Washington Monthly, and the New Republic. A student wears a graduation cap with a verse from the Koran written on it at Columbia University in New York on May 21, 2025. Jeenah Moon/AFP via Getty Images One by one, elite universities are signing away some of their autonomy to the Trump administration after it has accused them of civil rights violations and withheld federal funding. The University of Pennsylvania banned transgender women from participating in women's college sports as part of an agreement with the Trump administration earlier this month. Columbia University agreed last week to pay $200 million in penalties and fulfill a laundry list of other demands, from slashing diversity, equity, and inclusion programs to reviewing the curricula and personnel of its Middle Eastern studies department. Brown University agreed to pay $50 million Wednesday to support Rhode Island state workforce initiatives, to abide by the Trump administration's policies on trans athletes, and to apply what it refers to as 'merit-based' university admissions. Harvard University, despite seeking to fight the administration's allegations of antisemitism and demands in court, is also reportedly in talks to pay the federal government $500 million as part of an agreement similar to the one signed by Columbia. These Ivy League schools have large endowments, billions of dollars in reserve funds that should put them in the best financial position among institutions of higher education to resist the administration's allegations and attempts to hold their federal funding ransom. But so far, they have chosen to settle with Trump instead — and in so doing, campus free speech advocates say they are compromising academic freedom and dialogue throughout higher education. Other schools, especially those less resourced, are likely to follow. The Trump administration has announced investigations into more than 100 universities related to their policies on DEI, transgender students, students with disabilities, disclosure of foreign gifts and contracts, and alleged antisemitism following student protests against Israel's war in Gaza. 'This does set up a bit of a road map, unfortunately, that I think is probably going to ripple across higher education,' said Kristen Shahverdian, program director for campus free speech at PEN America, an organization that advocates for freedom of expression. 'This most likely has emboldened the Trump administration.' The Columbia agreement serves as a concerning blueprint Columbia has reached the most comprehensive deal signed by any university so far, and Education Secretary Linda McMahon has said that it will 'change the course of campus culture for years to come.' Trump had accused Columbia of failing to shield its students from antisemitic harassment and withheld $400 million in federal grants as a result. The deal restores that funding. In exchange, Columbia did not admit any wrongdoing but agreed to comply with Trump's demands on key policy priorities, and to pay $200 million to the US Treasury, as well as a separate $21 million to resolve civil rights complaints by Jewish students and staff. In the deal, the school agreed to crack down on student protests after the major protests over the war in Gaza on campus last year. As a private institution, Columbia is not required to protect freedom of expression on its property to the degree required by the First Amendment. But along with its peers, Columbia has historically sought to hold itself to that standard. Its agreement with the Trump administration marks a paradigm shift in that respect. The university vowed to discipline or expel students involved in demonstrations at Butler Library, enforce a ban on wearing masks during student protests, hire new security officers, and prevent student occupation of university buildings. Responsibilities for student discipline will also now be shifted from the faculty senate to the provost's office to ensure additional oversight. Those provisions have the potential to chill free speech. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a free speech advocacy group, has argued that masking, for example, may give individuals who are not involved in illicit activities the opportunity to articulate controversial opinions without fear of retribution or to draw focus to their message over their identities. The Supreme Court has repeatedly overturned identification requirements for expression under the First Amendment, acknowledging that there are legitimate reasons to protest anonymously. Columbia will also adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of antisemitism, which explicitly includes criticism of the state of Israel. That definition, that antisemitism is a 'certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews,' seeks to restrict speech that would not be punishable under federal antidiscrimination law. Free speech advocates say it is overly broad and will chill freedom of expression. 'The IHRA definition doesn't leave open what's necessary on a college campus, which is dialogue, digging into issues being presented with different people's different opinions, different research. It instead allows the university to restrict discussion and potentially to censor,' Shahverdian said. The university will also conduct a review of its curricular offerings and leadership in the departments focused on Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African studies to ensure 'balanced' content. It will create new joint faculty appointments to both the school's Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies and to the departments of economics, political science, and the School of International and Public Affairs in order to promote an 'intellectually diverse academic environment.' Columbia will reevaluate the number of international students it admits and ask them about their reasons for studying in the US. About 40 percent of the student body, both undergraduate and graduate-level, is foreign. It has agreed to share information about disciplinary action that results in expulsions or suspensions of international students, as well as their arrest records or other criminal history that the university is aware of, with federal immigration authorities. That means the university could now report students to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement if they're found to be in violation of the now more stringent campus policies on student protests, and the administration could take away their visa and deport them on that basis. And the university will end 'unlawful' DEI programs — including those that 'provide benefits or advantages to individuals on the basis of protected characteristics.' In the agreement, it pledges not to consider race, color, sex, or national origin of a candidate in hiring or admissions decisions. Some higher education experts, including Columbia's acting president, have pointed to one provision in the deal as a win for academic freedom: that no part of the settlement 'shall be construed as giving the United States authority to dictate faculty hiring, university hiring, admissions decisions or the content of academic speech.' (That same language shows up in the agreement that Brown signed this week.) However, it's important to note that an independent monitor, jointly selected by Columbia and the federal government, will oversee and report on compliance with the Columbia deal. That monitor, Bart M. Schwartz from the compliance consulting company Guidepost Solutions, has already been chosen. That kind of arrangement is 'incredibly unusual, really almost unprecedented,' Shahverdian said. Despite the provision some call 'a win,' then, the agreement could still significantly curtail Columbia's institutional independence and threaten constitutional protections for academic freedom. Indeed, courts have repeatedly recognized that the First Amendment protects academic freedom — that is, that the freedom of speech clause protects schools' and individual professors' ability to disseminate expert knowledge. 'To make high-level decisions about academic work in these departments is core academic governance that we wouldn't want to see [from the government],' said Connor Murnane, campus advocacy chief of staff at FIRE. 'We think that the federal government doesn't have a say in how a private institution reforms itself, if even possible.' Notably, the Trump administration's demand that Harvard similarly appoint an independent monitor has reportedly been a sticking point in ongoing negotiations. It's still unclear whether, as part of an eventual agreement like Columbia's and Brown's, Harvard will continue to pursue its lawsuit seeking to prevent the federal government from withholding federal funds. The school argues that those funds have been used 'as leverage to gain control of academic decisionmaking at Harvard.' What the agreements mean for campus free speech The Trump administration has managed to extract these agreements without doing much to even back up its claims of civil rights violations at elite universities. Harvard argues in its lawsuit that the administration did not follow the required procedures to temporarily withhold federal funds. There is a process associated with adjudicating claims of discrimination under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, but the White House followed no such process before retracting the funds. In order to withhold funding permanently, the Trump administration would have had to prove, in a Title VI hearing before an administrative judge, that the alleged discrimination was committed. The universities would have had the opportunity to formally submit evidence and respond to the allegations against them. Murnane said he's not sure if Columbia would have successfully defended itself against allegations of antisemitism or if it would have been able to sufficiently reform its policies to come into compliance with federal civil rights law and avoid penalties. What actually constitutes antisemitism in the context of student protests over the war in Gaza was hotly debated even at the time. And it's worth noting that Columbia's reaction to the protests last year was significantly harsher than its peers. It was the first elite school to call the police on its own students, escalating campus unrest, and it swiftly expelled some of the students involved in the protests, while its peers pursued lesser disciplinary actions. Columbia also suspended its campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, one of the organizations that helped organize the protests, whereas its peers did not. And before the agreement was reached, the university had already increased funding for Jewish student programs, enhanced security for Jewish centers on campus, and appointed a new vice provost for campus climate tasked with combating antisemitism. Murnane noted that Harvard has also taken steps to improve the campus climate while respecting free speech, including adopting a pledge that classroom discussions cannot be attributed to particular individuals under Chatham House rules, launching a program for students to debate issues with people who don't share their opinions, and adding a question to their application asking about how students interact with people they disagree with. Brown, too, reached an agreement with Gaza protesters in 2024 that was widely praised as a better means of encouraging campus dialogue compared to the approaches pursued by its peers. But instead of evaluating the allegations against these universities and the steps they took as part of a formal process, the administration temporarily cut off funding unilaterally, as a tactic to bring the schools to the negotiating table and reach an alternative resolution to the legal cases against them. Given the amounts of federal funding on the line, in the hundreds of millions of dollars, universities have to some extent been backed into a corner. But those with the endowments to weather the storm, including Columbia, whose endowment is $14.8 billion (Harvard's, for its part, is more than $53 billion) did have a choice — and now all of higher education may pay the price.
The Star
5 hours ago
- Business
- The Star
Design software maker Figma's shares set to double in blowout market debut
FILE PHOTO: A Wall Street plate is seen on a street vendor stall outside the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., July 11, 2025. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon/File photo (Reuters) -Design software maker Figma's shares were indicated to open at more than double their initial public offering price on Thursday, setting the stage for a flurry of high-growth tech listings and strengthening a rebound in the IPO market. If the stock starts to trade at the last indicated range of $65 to $70 on the New York Stock Exchange, it would value the company at more than twice the $20 billion price tag from a now-abandoned buyout deal with industry giant Adobe in December 2023. The U.S. initial public offerings market has bounced back after tariff-driven volatility briefly paused listings in April, putting 2025 on track to end a nearly three-year dry spell. "Fast-growing software IPOs have been extremely rare during the past three years, so deals like this tend to get a lot of attention," said Matt Kennedy, senior strategist at Renaissance Capital, a provider of IPO-focused research and ETFs. "Because of this three-year bottleneck, tech IPO investors have been starved for new deals." The company, which priced the IPO at $33, above an already raised range, secured a valuation of $19.34 billion in the listing. Recent tech IPOs have drawn strong investor interest and delivered solid post-listing gains, fueling optimism around new offerings from high-growth and AI-focused firms. "From a private markets perspective, Figma's IPO is a bellwether event for the tech sector," said Derek Hernandez, senior analyst, emerging technology at PitchBook. Figma makes collaborative design software used to build websites, apps and digital products, and customers include streaming giant Netflix, travel firm Airbnb and language learning app Duolingo. Its prominent backers include Silicon Valley venture capital giants Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia. "If you look at Figma's positioning around AI, and the ability to deliver massively improved experiences to its customers with AI, that was not obvious back in 2022," said Andrew Reed, a partner at Sequoia Capital and a board member of Figma. Sequoia Capital first invested in Figma at $1.10 a share during the company's Series C round. With Figma pricing its IPO at $33 a share, Sequoia stands to make a significant return on its roughly $150 million investment, according to a source familiar with the matter. AI RACE Design software firms are racing to integrate generative-AI tools that automate tasks such as image creation, layout suggestions and code generation, as companies jostle to win enterprise clients and creative teams. Figma, in its IPO filing, flagged intense competition, particularly from rapid AI adoption, as a potential headwind, warning it could cede market share. "We've embedded different flavors of AI - both to lower the floor (and) allow more people to participate in the design process - while also raising the ceiling for individuals (and) for companies to be able to have even more high craft in what they're creating," said Chief Financial Officer Praveer Melwani. The effort has accelerated since Adobe, Microsoft and others began rolling out AI features aimed at speeding up workflows and cutting costs. "Software companies with a strong AI element to them seem to be assets that investors want to buy," said Will Braeutigam, U.S. capital markets transactions leader at Deloitte. Figma, for its part, has rolled out several products built around AI as it looks to stay competitive and meet growing demand for automation in design workflows. "If this company didn't have an AI strategy, it would not be seeing this level of demand," Renaissance Capital's Kennedy said. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Allen & Co and J.P. Morgan are the lead underwriters of the IPO. (Reporting by Manya Saini and Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)
The Star
9 hours ago
- Business
- The Star
Roblox raises annual bookings forecast as viral hits spur spending boom
FILE PHOTO: The Roblox logo is displayed on a screen on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., July 15, 2025. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon/File photo (Reuters) -Roblox raised its forecast for annual bookings on Thursday and crossed 100 million in daily active users on its videogame platform, riding on the success of viral hits such as "Grow a Garden" and sending its shares up 19% before the bell. Many of the platform's games have become highly popular due to their free-to-play nature and wide availability, drawing millions of users across diverse age groups and demographics. Average daily active users, a key measure of engagement, grew 41% to 111.8 million in the second quarter, while hours engaged jumped 58% to 27.4 billion. A large portion of the engagement and bookings growth in the second quarter came from "Grow a Garden", a tycoon-style game which allows players to grow their plots of land by trading seeds and plants. In June, the game set a world record for the most concurrent players to play a videogame, highlighting Roblox's reach across geographies. The company has been investing in search and discovery features that allow greater visibility for games like "Grow a Garden", with already healthy engagements, the company's newly appointed CFO, Naveen Chopra, told Reuters. In an uncertain economy, Roblox is diversifying its revenue sources beyond gaming and turning the platform into a hub for socializing, commerce and advertising. Such efforts have excited investors, who have more than doubled the company's shares so far this year, far outperforming rival videogame publishers. Roblox now expects fiscal 2025 bookings of between $5.87 billion and $5.97 billion, compared with its previous forecast of $5.29 billion to $5.36 billion. It forecast third-quarter bookings between $1.59 billion and $1.64 billion, compared with an estimate of $1.35 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. Bookings for the second quarter came in at $1.44 billion, beating market estimates of $1.24 billion. (Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)
CNBC
a day ago
- Business
- CNBC
S&P 500 futures rise after Meta and Microsoft post quarterly beats: Live updates
A trader works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., July 30, 2025. Jeenah Moon | Reuters S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures rose on Wednesday night following solid earnings reports from tech titans Microsoft and Meta Platforms. S&P 500 futures jumped 0.6%, and Nasdaq 100 futures climbed nearly 1%. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 44 points, or 0.1%. "Magnificent Seven" titans Microsoft and Meta respectively rose about 8% and 12% on Wednesday night on the back of better-than-expected quarterly earnings. Software giant Microsoft said that annual revenue from its cloud computing service Azure exceeded $75 billion. Meta issued an upbeat third-quarter sales outlook, surpassing the Street's estimates. In regular trading Wednesday, the S&P 500 closed lower after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled that the U.S. central bank is still not ready to cut interest rates. The broad market index shed 0.12%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 171.71 points, or 0.38%. The Nasdaq Composite , on the other hand, notched a 0.15% gain. While the Federal Reserve left its benchmark overnight policy rate steady at its July meeting, not all members agreed with the decision. Fed governors Michelle Bowman and Christopher Waller dissented with the call to keep the key interest rate at a range of 4.25% to 4.50%. When asked about a potential policy change in September, Powell said that the Fed has "made no decisions." Ross Mayfield, investment analyst at Baird, said that Wednesday's losses made sense given the market's currently "stretched" valuations. The S&P 500's decline marked its second day of losses following a streak of six record closes in a row. "There's a lot of good news priced in, so I think little things on the margin can have a bigger impact when you've had such a run, like slightly hawkish comments in the FOMC presser," Mayfield said to CNBC. "Sentiment has shifted back to a pretty bullish tenor, and I think the market needs to consolidate and take a breather, and it'll grab on to whatever it needs to as an excuse." On Thursday, traders will watch out for June's personal consumption expenditures price index reading, the Fed's preferred inflation gauge. Economists polled by Dow Jones see headline PCE rising 2.5% on a 12-month basis and 0.3% from the prior month. Weekly jobless claims are also due. Comcast , Bristol-Myers Squibb , Cigna , CVS Health , Shake Shack , AbbVie and Mastercard are among the companies set to report earnings before Thursday's opening bell.
CNBC
2 days ago
- Business
- CNBC
Stock futures are little changed as investors analyze earnings, await Fed rate decision: Live updates
Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., July 25, 2025. Jeenah Moon | Reuters S&P 500 futures are near flat Tuesday night, after the benchmark snapped a win streak that brought it to record highs, as investors analyzed earnings reports and awaited the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision. Futures tied to the broad index flickered near flat, as did Nasdaq 100 futures . Dow Jones Industrial Average futures lost 41 points, or 0.1%. Starbucks shares climbed more than 3% after the bell after the coffee chain posted stronger-than-expected revenue for the third fiscal quarter. On the other hand, Visa sank more than 2% despite quarterly results coming in better than what Wall Street expected. Tuesday night's action follows a losing day on the Street, marking the first session of the last seven where the S&P 500 did not close at an all-time high. The S&P 500 slid 0.3% in the session, while the Dow and Nasdaq Composite lost about 0.5% and 0.4%, respectively. Investors are awaiting the Federal Reserve's interest rate announcement Wednesday afternoon. Fed funds futures are pricing in a nearly 98% likelihood of the central bank keeping its key rate at a range of 4.25% to 4.5%, according to CME Group's FedWatch tool. "Despite increased political scrutiny, Fed Chair Jerome Powell continues to signal patience around any interest rate decision," said Jerry Tempelman, vice president of fixed income research at Mutual of America Capital Management. "Financial markets do not anticipate any change in monetary policy from the Federal Reserve until at least September." Following the decision, traders will turn to a press conference with Chair Jerome Powell for insights into the path of monetary policy. This comes as President Donald Trump and allies have tried to pressure Powell to bring the borrowing cost down. Before that, traders will monitor economic data on private payrolls, gross domestic product and pending home sales due in the morning. They'll also follow the continued stream of earnings reports. Etsy will provide its quarterly results before the bell on Wednesday, followed by Meta Platforms , Microsoft , Ford and Robinhood after the market closes. These are some of the stocks making notable moves in after-hour trading: Starbucks — The coffee chain's shares added 3% in extended trading after revenue for the fiscal third quarter came in higher than expected. Starbucks posted revenue of $9.46 billion, while LSEG consensus estimates called for $9.31 billion. Same-store sales fell for the sixth consecutive quarter, however. — The coffee chain's shares added 3% in extended trading after revenue for the fiscal third quarter came in higher than expected. Starbucks posted revenue of $9.46 billion, while LSEG consensus estimates called for $9.31 billion. Same-store sales fell for the sixth consecutive quarter, however. Visa — Shares fell 3%. Visa reaffirmed full-year 2025 guidance of low double-digit net revenue growth. Separately, the financial technology company beat expectations on the top and bottom lines in the fiscal third quarter. Visa posted adjusted earnings $2.98 per share on revenue of $10.17 billion, while analysts polled by LSEG forecast $2.85 per share and $9.84 billion in revenue. — Shares fell 3%. Visa reaffirmed full-year 2025 guidance of low double-digit net revenue growth. Separately, the financial technology company beat expectations on the top and bottom lines in the fiscal third quarter. Visa posted adjusted earnings $2.98 per share on revenue of $10.17 billion, while analysts polled by LSEG forecast $2.85 per share and $9.84 billion in revenue. Mondelez International — The manufacturer of Oreo cookies and Sour Patch Kids candy saw shares tumble nearly 3%. Mondelez reaffirmed its full-year guidance, calling for a 10% decline year over year in earnings per share on constant currency and organic revenue growth of about 5%. Separately, second-quarter results surpassed Wall Street estimates. Click here for the full story. — Alex Harring Stock futures tied to the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 were all little changed shortly after 6 p.m. ET. — Alex Harring
