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GMA Network
a day ago
- Politics
- GMA Network
US to allow federal workers to promote religion in workplaces
WASHINGTON - Federal employees may discuss and promote their religious beliefs in the workplace, the Trump administration said on Monday, citing religious freedoms protected by the U.S. Constitution. Agency employees may seek to "persuade others of the correctness of their own religious views" in the office, wrote Scott Kupor, director of the Office of Personnel Management, the U.S. government's human resources agency. Supervisors can attempt to recruit their employees to their religion, so long as the efforts aren't 'harassing in nature,' according to Kupor's statement. Agencies can't discipline their employees for declining to talk to their coworkers about their religious views. The statement represents the latest effort of the six-month-old Republican Trump administration to expand the role of religion in the federal workplace. Courts have long held that employers cannot suppress all religious expression in the workplace, but can lawfully curb conduct that is disruptive or imposes an undue hardship as long as it applies equally to members of any religion. The U.S. Constitution's First Amendment protects individuals' rights to practice their religion while preventing the government from favoring one religion or another or religion in general. OPM in mid-July said agency workers can get permission to work from home or adjust their hours to accommodate religious prayers, after previously demanding that workers report to offices fulltime. The new statement cites President Donald Trump's February executive order calling on agencies to eliminate the "anti-Christian weaponization of government." That order directs cabinet secretaries to identify federal actions hostile to Christians. Trump has embraced the conservative Christian world view and promoted policies that speak to concerns that their religious liberty is under attack. Federal employees can also set up prayer groups in the workplace, so long as they don't meet during work hours, Kupor's statement said. The memo references Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a law that prohibits workplace discrimination based on a person's religion or religious practices. Kupor in the memo said that means the law requires employers to allow workers to proselytize, organize prayer groups on non-working time, and display religious icons. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which enforces Title VII, has said that proselytizing in the workplace can amount to unlawful religious harassment if it is unwelcome and is so severe or pervasive that it creates a hostile or abusive work environment. "A consensual conversation about religious views, even if quite spirited, does not constitute harassment if it is not unwelcome," the agency said in a 2008 guidance document. Kupor's memo is not legally binding, and any court that reviews it could disagree about the scope of Title VII's protections. But the memo could be difficult to challenge directly in court, as judges in many past cases have said they lack the power to review internal agency documents. — Reuters
Forbes
4 days ago
- Politics
- Forbes
What Columbia's Deal With The Government Could Mean For Other Colleges
Columbia University has reached a deal resolving its dispute with the federal government. Attention ... More now turns to the broader implications for higher education. Now that Columbia University has finally reached an agreement with the Trump administration resolving several allegations that it violated federal anti-discrimination laws, attention is turning to what the deal could mean for higher education in general. As part of the deal struck this week, Columbia will pay $200 million over three years to the federal government. In addition, it agreed to dole out another $21 million to settle investigations brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In exchange, the university said that 'a vast majority of the federal grants which were terminated or paused in March 2025 will be reinstated, and Columbia's access to billions of dollars in current and future grants will be restored.' Columbia's leaders insisted that 'the agreement preserves Columbia's autonomy and authority over faculty hiring, admissions, and academic decision-making' and that much of it codified several reforms Columbia had already announced last March, including "enhancements to campus safety, changes to disciplinary processes, and renewed efforts to foster an inclusive and respectful learning environment.' But the resolution also requires Columbia to end its diversity programs, limit consideration of racial identity in its admissions practices, increase the information it reports on international students, and hire a new administrator to serve as a liaison for Jewish students. While some observers applauded the outcome, the university's attempt to cast the deal in the most favorable light possible was disputed by many others, who took exception to several concessions Columbia made, including the selection of Bart M. Schwartz (a former chief of the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York) as an independent monitor that Columbia will have to pay to assess implementation of the resolution. Columbia will be required to provide regular reports to Schwartz about whether it's adhering to the agreement and complying with federal laws and regulations concerning admissions, hiring, and international students. The agreement – the most comprehensive settlement the government has reached with any of the several universities it's accused of antisemitism and other types of discrimination — may well have been the deal Columbia needed to strike for its own financial well being. Acting Columbia University President Claire Shipman seemed to think so: 'This agreement marks an important step forward after a period of sustained federal scrutiny and institutional uncertainty. 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," she said in a statement. Shipman emphasized this specific part of the resolution: 'No provision of this agreement, individually or taken together, shall be construed as giving the United States authority to dictate faculty hiring, university hiring, admissions decisions, or the content of academic speech.' She then added, 'This was our north star, and we did not waver from it. Columbia's governance remains in our control. The federal government will not dictate what we teach, who teaches, or which students we admit.' Time will tell if Columbia did the smart thing for itself by agreeing to this resolution. Cutting its losses, as this deal attempts to accomplish, might have been the best it could do, but the process raises broader questions. For example, will it make other institutions— like Harvard, which initially resisted the administration's pressure but is reportedly now negotiating with the government — more or less likely to come to terms? What should be of great concern to university leaders elsewhere is the dangerous precedent that's been established for how the federal government sets, monitors and enforces higher education policy across the country. The negotiated settlement with Columbia is almost certain to serve as a blueprint for how the administration will pressure other universities to change policies the president and his conservative supporters don't like. President Trump said as much himself, posting this on Truth Social, following the announcement of the agreement — '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.' Secretary of Education Linda McMahon heralded the agreement as 'a seismic shift in our nation's fight to hold institutions that accept American taxpayer dollars accountable for antisemitic discrimination and harassment.' McMahon, who is presiding over the rapid shrinking of her own department, went on to warn: 'Columbia's reforms are a roadmap for elite universities that wish to regain the confidence of the American public by renewing their commitment to truth-seeking, merit, and civil debate. I believe they will ripple across the higher education sector and change the course of campus culture for years to come.' Is the new modus operandi for higher education going to become one where the federal government coerces a series of universities to make one ad hoc concession after the other so they can restore the funding the feds have withheld? Peace for a price, if the price is right? That's an approach David Pozen, the Charles Keller Beekman Professor of Law at the Columbia Law School, has criticized as 'regulation by deal.' Sacrificing to survive is a framework fraught with difficulty. The government should not be able to dictate how universities are operated through individually negotiated transactions. Rather than following the traditional paradigm of Congress passing laws and the Department of Education promulgating and enforcing rules, such agreements serve largely as window dressing for federal shakedowns. As Pozen argues, 'the style of regulation reflected in the Columbia deal is at once far more coercive and far more arbitrary—opaque in development, unpredictable in application, deeply susceptible to personalism and corruption, and only contingently connected to the laws Congress has written.' Transactional administration, like that increasingly practiced under President Trump's leadership, substitutes back-door dealmaking and governmental coercion for principled policy directives and legal consistency. In the long run, that's a poor way to improve education, protect students, or promote fairness. And it's a dangerous path for our colleges and universities to be strong-armed into following. It has been painful to watch Columbia be bullied. It will be even harder to see other institutions succumb to the same strategy.
The Hill
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Hill
Columbia to pay $221M to restore funding cut by Trump administration
Columbia University said Wednesday it has agreed to pay the Trump administration $221 million to restore federal funding that was stripped following a probe into antisemitism on the campus. The school, according to the settlement, will pay a $200 million settlement to the federal government over a three-year period and $21 million to 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,' Acting University President Claire Shipman said 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,' she added. The interim president said the Trump administration deal will allow the school to maintain its academic independence after losing $400 million in grant funding earlier this year. In June, a judge dismissed a lawsuit led by Columbia's faculty, ruling that only the school had grounds to sue the government for revoking its funds. 'Columbia's longstanding research partnership with the federal government is vital to advancing our nation's progress in key areas of science, technology, and medicine,' Board of Trustees Co-Chairs David Greenwald and Jeh Johnson said in a statement on the matter. 'We are proud of the role we play in advancing this public service and preparing the next generations of students to meet complex challenges around the world,' they added. President Trump announced the agreement on Tuesday night in a Truth Social post celebrating the win for his administration. 'It's a great honor to have been involved, and I want to thank and congratulate Secretary Linda McMahon, and all those who worked with us on this important deal,' he wrote. 'I also want to thank and commend Columbia University for agreeing to do what is right. I look forward to watching them have a great future in our Country, maybe greater than ever before!' He warned earlier in the post that other schools could face similar measures to motivate the erasure of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, which the administration has deemed discriminatory. '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 in the post. '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,' the president added.
Hindustan Times
5 days ago
- Business
- Hindustan Times
Columbia Reaches Deal With Trump Administration to Restore Federal Funds
Columbia University reached a deal with the Trump administration, ending a confrontation that disrupted the U.S. higher-education industry and sparked a contentious renegotiation of academia's relationship to the federal government. Columbia intends to make payments to the U.S. government over three years to settle allegations the school violated antidiscrimination laws. As part of the deal, Columbia will pay $200 million to the federal government over three years to settle allegations the school violated antidiscrimination laws. The school also agreed to settle investigations brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for $21 million. In return, the Trump administration will restore nearly all of the hundreds of millions of dollars in research grants it had pulled from Columbia back in March. The school will also be able to access federal funding in the future. The deal doesn't include a consent decree, which the Trump administration initially pursued. That would have given a federal judge responsibility for ensuring Columbia changes its practices. Instead, a 'jointly selected independent monitor' will assess Columbia's compliance with the terms of the resolution. The federal government canceled $400 million in grants and contracts in March, charging that the university had violated civil-rights laws by ignoring what it determined was harassment of Jewish students after the Hamas attacks against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The Trump administration's battle with Columbia was the first of a series of broadsides against elite research universities that depend on federal funds to operate. It helped fulfill a campaign promise made by President Trump to rein in the progressive ideas at elite universities that he said amounted to a 'Marxist assault on our American heritage and Western civilization itself.' Still unresolved is the White House's fight with Harvard University. On Monday, a federal judge heard arguments from Harvard, which contended the government had no basis to cut $2.2 billion in research funding. Lawyers for the government insisted it has the power to cancel contracts with universities that no longer align with government priorities. The Trump administration's moves to reshape higher education have torpedoed a half-century-old university business model, upending research and scrambling the careers of thousands of scientists whose work the federal government funds. Columbia became a target for the Trump administration after pro-Palestinian protests last year led the school to move classes online, while a campus rabbi warned Jewish students against returning to campus after Passover break because he feared the climate wasn't safe. Columbia President Minouche Shafik was unable to reconcile the factions and resigned in August 2024 after just 13 months on the job. Earlier this year, interim President Katrina Armstrong stepped down after playing down commitments she had made to the federal government in closed-door meetings with faculty. The university board's co-chair, Claire Shipman, was named acting president. Write to Douglas Belkin at
The Herald Scotland
6 days ago
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Columbia University fined $200 million by Trump administration
It will also jointly appoint an independent monitor to update the federal government on its compliance with new policies, and pay an additional $21 million fine to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The agreement marks the second major concession from the prestigious university in its protracted negotiations with the government. Despite the drawn-out talks, and many compromises on Columbia's part, the Trump administration has yet to reroute hundreds of millions of dollars back to the school. The school previously agreed, among other things, to bolster campus law enforcement, appoint a new administrator to oversee its Middle Eastern studies department and retool its protest policies in an effort to assuage the White House. Columbia's acting president, Claire Shipman, said in a statement that the agreement preserves the university's independence and will restore research funding, including from the National Institutes of Health, on which the school depends. "This agreement marks an important step forward after a period of sustained federal scrutiny and institutional uncertainty," she said. "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." The announcement also comes after the Trump administration pushed the University of Pennsylvania, another Ivy League school, to agree to a series of demands related to preventing transgender athletes from competing. Similarly, that deal was reached to restore massive amounts of federal money. Read more: Lia Thomas, Title IX and $175M: Why Penn struck a deal with Trump Meanwhile, Columbia is facing a separate battle over its accreditation status, which the school needs in order to distribute federal financial aid dollars to students. The Education Department has pushed Columbia's accreditor, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, to reevaluate its standing. Though Middle States has placed the university on warning, such a step would be virtually unprecedented, and a long and complex process would have to be followed before its accreditation could be revoked. Zachary Schermele is an education reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach him by email at zschermele@ Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and Bluesky at @
