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Reuters
15 hours ago
- Politics
- Reuters
Columbia ends uncertainty with Trump deal, head says
July 24 (Reuters) - Columbia University's agreement to pay over $200 million to the U.S. government in a settlement with President Donald Trump's administration to resolve federal probes and restore most of its suspended federal funding ends a period of "institutional uncertainty," the university's acting president said. Trump has targeted several universities since returning to office in January over the pro-Palestinian student protest movement that roiled college campuses last year. "The resolution will allow the university to move forward with clarity and focus — returning our full attention to the work of teaching, discovery, and public service," Acting President Claire Shipman said in a statement, adding that under the settlement the university did not admit to violating civil rights laws. In March, the Trump administration said it was penalizing Columbia over how it handled last year's protests by canceling $400 million in federal funding. It contended that Columbia's response to alleged antisemitism and harassment of Jewish and Israeli members of the university community was insufficient. Columbia said it also agreed to settle investigations brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for $21 million and that its deal with the Trump administration preserved its "autonomy and authority over faculty hiring, admissions, and academic decision-making." Education Secretary Linda McMahon said Columbia agreed "to discipline student offenders for severe disruptions of campus operations, make structural changes to their Faculty Senate, bring viewpoint diversity to their Middle Eastern studies programs, eliminate race preferences from their hiring and admissions practices, and end DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) programs." The agreement, opens new tab calls on Columbia to appoint an administrator to oversee the three-year accord and spells out that a provost will review hiring and other practices in its Middle East and other programs, and a student liaison to help address antisemitism issues. Shipman said the agreement restored access to $1.3 billion in federal funding and reinstated $400 million in frozen grants. Had Columbia fought the Trump administration in court it could have won short-term litigation victories but would have lost federal funding and faced the potential revocation of the visa status of thousands of international students, she said. After the government canceled funding, the school acquiesced in March to a series of demands that included scrutiny of departments offering courses on the Middle East and other concessions that were widely condemned by U.S. academics. The agreement announced Wednesday contained no provisions that "shall be construed as giving the United States authority to dictate faculty hiring, university hiring, admissions decisions, or the content of academic speech,' Shipman said. Last week, Columbia adopted a definition of antisemitism that equates it with opposition to Zionism. Critics argue anti-Zionism is not inherently antisemitic. Campus protesters demanded an end to U.S. support for Israel's military assault on Gaza after a deadly October 2023 attack by Palestinian Hamas militants, and a commitment that the university will cease investing any of its $14.8 billion endowment in weapons makers and companies that support Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories. The government has labeled pro-Palestinian protesters as antisemitic. Protesters, including some Jewish groups, say the government has wrongly conflated their criticism of Israel's actions with antisemitism and their advocacy for Palestinian rights with support for extremism. "We are not denying the very serious and painful challenges our institution has faced with antisemitism," Shipman said.
National Post
16 hours ago
- Politics
- National Post
Columbia University agrees to pay more than $220M in deal with Trump to restore federal funding
Columbia University announced Wednesday it has reached a deal with the Trump administration to pay more than $220 million to the federal government to restore federal research money that was canceled in the name of combating antisemitism on campus. Article content Under the agreement, the Ivy League school will pay a $200 million settlement over three years, the university said. It will also pay $21 million to resolve alleged civil rights violations against Jewish employees that occurred following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, the White House said. Article content Article content Article content 'This agreement marks an important step forward after a period of sustained federal scrutiny and institutional uncertainty,' acting University President Claire Shipman said. Article content Article content The school had been threatened with the potential loss of billions of dollars in government support, including more than $400 million in grants canceled earlier this year. The administration pulled the funding because of what it described as the university's failure to squelch antisemitism on campus during the Israel-Hamas war. Article content Columbia has since agreed to a series of demands laid out by the Republican administration, including overhauling the university's student disciplinary process and applying a contentious, federally endorsed definition of antisemitism not only to teaching but to a disciplinary committee that has been investigating students critical of Israel. Article content Wednesday's agreement — which does not include an admission of wrongdoing — codifies those reforms while preserving the university's autonomy, Shipman said. Article content Education Secretary Linda 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.' Article content '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,' McMahon said in a statement. Article content As part of the agreement, Columbia agreed to a series of changes previously announced in March, including reviewing its Middle East curriculum to make sure it was 'comprehensive and balanced' and appointing new faculty to its Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies. It also promised to end programs 'that promote unlawful efforts to achieve race-based outcomes, quotes, diversity targets or similar efforts.' Article content The university will also have to issue a report to a monitor assuring that its programs 'do not promote unlawful DEI goals.' Article content In a post Wednesday night on his Truth Social platform, President Donald Trump said Columbia had 'committed to ending their ridiculous DEI policies, admitting students based ONLY on MERIT, and protecting the Civil Liberties of their students on campus.' Article content He also warned, without being specific, '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.' Article content The pact comes after months of uncertainty and fraught negotiations at the more than 270-year-old university. It was among the first targets of Trump's crackdown on pro-Palestinian campus protests and on colleges that he asserts have allowed Jewish students be threatened and harassed. Article content Columbia's own antisemitism task force found last summer that Jewish students had faced verbal abuse, ostracism and classroom humiliation during the spring 2024 demonstrations. Article content Article content Other Jewish students took part in the protests, however, and protest leaders maintain they aren't targeting Jews but rather criticizing the Israeli government and its war in Gaza. Article content Columbia's leadership — a revolving door of three interim presidents in the last year — has declared that the campus climate needs to change. Article content Also in the settlement is an agreement to ask prospective international students 'questions designed to elicit their reasons for wishing to study in the United States,' and establishes processes to make sure all students are committed to 'civil discourse.' Article content In a move that would potentially make it easier for the Trump administration to deport students who participate in protests, Columbia promised to provide the government with information, upon request, of disciplinary actions involving student-visa holders resulting in expulsions or suspensions. Article content Columbia on Tuesday announced it would suspend, expel or revoke degrees from more than 70 students who participated in a pro-Palestinian demonstration inside the main library in May and an encampment during alumni weekend last year. Article content The pressure on Columbia began with a series of funding cuts. Then Mahmoud Khalil, a former graduate student who had been a visible figure in the protests, became the first person detained in the Trump administration's push to deport pro-Palestinian activists who aren't U.S. citizens. Article content Next came searches of some university residences amid a federal Justice Department investigation into whether Columbia concealed 'illegal aliens' on campus. The interim president at the time responded that the university was committed to upholding the law. Article content Columbia was an early test case for the Trump administration as it sought closer oversight of universities that the Republican president views as bastions of liberalism. Yet it soon was overshadowed by Harvard University, which became the first higher education institution to defy Trump's demands and fight back in court. Article content The Trump administration has used federal research funding as its primary lever in its campaign to reshape higher education. More than $2 billion in total has also been frozen at Cornell, Northwestern, Brown and Princeton universities.
CNN
16 hours ago
- Politics
- CNN
Trump administration still hopeful about a Harvard deal after Columbia reaches settlement
The Trump administration is still optimistic about the possibility of reaching a deal with Harvard University after it announced a $200 million settlement with Columbia University on Wednesday. 'While there's a lawsuit pending with Harvard, and I'm sure that lawsuit will play out, I do hope that Harvard will continue to come to the table with negotiations. Those talks are continuing, and we'd like to have a resolution there, outside of the courts,' Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a phone interview with CNN on Thursday. Harvard faced off with the Trump administration in court on Monday, arguing that the administration's $2 billion freeze in federal funding for research was in violation of the school's First Amendment rights. The case has become a flashpoint in a major clash over academic freedom, campus oversight and federal funding. The judge has not made a final ruling in the case, but Harvard has asked for a decision to be made no later than September 3, when it says some of the funding cuts could become more permanent. McMahon pointed to some recent actions taken by Harvard as positive steps, including the departure of the heads of the Middle Eastern Studies center. She described the current state of talks with the university as 'ongoing' but declined to provide additional details. She also declined to provide information about the scale of any settlement the administration hopes to achieve with Harvard, which has a larger endowment than Columbia. In a statement shortly after the Columbia deal was announced, McMahon described the move as a 'seismic shift' for higher education that could serve as a 'roadmap' for other schools. She said that 'other universities are already looking at' the template provided by the Columbia agreement. 'Colleges and universities are understanding at this particular point that they have some issues they need to address, and I think that they are coming to the table to do that,' she said. McMahon added that there are 'other investigations that are going on' and that the Trump administration has sent letters to some other universities 'letting them know that we are investigating … but I would prefer that we will not go public with those right now.'
Yahoo
18 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Columbia Agrees to $200 Million Fine to Settle White House Fight
(Bloomberg) -- Columbia University reached a landmark deal with the Trump administration to restore federal funding for research, easing a crisis that has rattled the school's finances and upended its leadership. Trump Awards $1.26 Billion Contract to Build Biggest Immigrant Detention Center in US Why the Federal Reserve's Building Renovation Costs $2.5 Billion The High Costs of Trump's 'Big Beautiful' New Car Loan Deduction Salt Lake City Turns Winter Olympic Bid Into Statewide Bond Boom The Ivy League school will pay a $200 million penalty over three years to resolve multiple civil rights investigations, clearing the way for the reinstatement of the majority of more than $400 million in canceled grants and contracts, as well as access to billions of dollars in future grants. Columbia will pay another $21 million to settle claims that Jewish faculty and staff faced unlawful workplace discrimination following the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, according to the agreement. The school also made a series of commitments intended to increase transparency and compliance with federal civil rights law, and said it would strengthen its oversight of international students and bolster campus safety. The requirements highlight a new era of federal scrutiny of higher education in the US, with little assurance that the pressure is over. While the deal gives Columbia immediate relief from the Trump administration's hardball tactics, it leaves open the possibility of renewed investigations or future funding freezes. It also imposes years of oversight by a jointly approved resolution monitor, who will keep tabs on how the deal is being carried out and receive regular reports from the university. The terms amount to a sweeping set of commitments for a school that, in the text of the agreement, denied any wrongdoing — and a potential sign of a continuing role the Trump administration may play in shaping university policy. 'We've seen with this administration that no decision is permanent,' said Marcel Agueros, an astronomy professor at Columbia and the secretary of the university's chapter of the American Association of University Professors. Center of Controversy Columbia's deal will potentially act as a template for other colleges negotiating with the US government, including Harvard University, which has also been hit by a flurry of actions cutting off funding and targeting its ability to enroll foreign students. Robert Kelchen, a professor of educational leadership and policy studies at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, said the agreement 'increases the pressure on other universities' to settle. President Donald Trump said Wednesday on social media that deals with other schools are 'upcoming.' Columbia has been at the center of controversy since pro-Palestinian protests roiled its New York City campus over the war in Gaza following the Oct. 7 attack. Lawmakers hammered the school for fostering antisemitism on its campus, but after Trump was elected to a second term, criticisms broadened to include efforts to promote diversity and objections to the number of foreign students admitted to campus. Foreigners make up almost 40% of the New York school's student body and contribute a significant portion of its revenue. In March, multiple federal agencies canceled more than 300 grants and contracts to researchers at Columbia as a result of its 'continued inaction' in the face of a surge in complaints of antisemitism from Jewish students. Columbia said in a statement Wednesday that under the deal, paused payments on active research will be reinstated, including grants from the National Institutes of Health and Department of Health and Human Services. '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,' said Acting Columbia President Claire Shipman in a statement. 'Importantly, it safeguards our independence, a critical condition for academic excellence and scholarly exploration, work that is vital to the public interest.' In a letter to students and staff on Wednesday night, Shipman highlighted the agreement's assurances that the government would have no authority to control faculty hiring, admissions decisions or permitted academic speech and classroom topics. 'The federal government will not dictate what we teach, who teaches, or which students we admit,' she wrote. Still, Agueros said that he had 'very mixed feelings' about the settlement, but that chief among them was 'demoralization.' 'It's hard not to feel like we have just caved to the bullying of this administration, which has now seen that it can in fact successfully use these tools to make a private university follow its wishes,' Agueros said. Broad Turmoil The broad turmoil at Columbia since 2023 has contributed to the departures of president Minouche Shafik and interim leader Katrina Armstrong, who resigned in March after she appeared on a Zoom call with faculty to downplay reforms agreed with the White House. Armstrong had agreed to a partial ban on masks, increased policing on campus and oversight of Columbia's Middle East studies department. Under the final agreement, the university will share more detailed information with federal agencies about hiring and admissions decisions, restructure how it oversees student protests, and tighten rules against disruptive or masked demonstrations. Face masks for the purpose of concealing one's identity while violating school policy are also banned. The deal also requires a review of Columbia's regional programs, beginning with those related to the Middle East. Oversight of the agreement will be handled by resolution monitor Bart Schwartz, the founder of Guidepost Solutions, and an administrator. Columbia will also strengthen its oversight of international students by assessing applicants' reasons for studying in the US, sharing data with the federal government, and reducing the school's financial dependence on foreign students. A senior White House official described the $21 million payment for workplace discrimination claims as the largest public employment-discrimination settlement in nearly two decades, and the biggest ever tied to antisemitism or for workers of any religion. Government Probe Columbia agreed to the arrangement following a government probe that found the Ivy League school violated federal civil rights law by acting 'with deliberate indifference' toward the harassment of its Jewish students. Shipman said Wednesday the school has not admitted wrongdoing and disagrees with the government's conclusion, but that it does not deny 'the very serious and painful challenges our institution has faced with antisemitism.' To Brian Cohen, executive director at Columbia's Kraft Center for Jewish Student Life, the deal 'is an important recognition of what Jewish students and their families have expressed with increasing urgency: antisemitism on campus is real, and it has had a tangible impact on Jewish students' sense of safety and belonging and, in turn, their civil rights.' He added that he's hopeful the deal 'marks the beginning of real, sustained change.' In a post on X, Columbia University Apartheid Divest — a coalition of pro-Palestinian student groups behind the campus protests — denounced the school for 'selling your students out.' Earlier this month, the school said it would adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of antisemitism and pledged to appoint coordinators to respond to and report allegations of civil rights violations. The school also said it would partner with Jewish organizations for mandatory anti-discrimination training. Education Secretary Linda McMahon described the deal as a 'roadmap for elite universities' and said in an interview with Fox Business on Thursday that she hoped a settlement with Harvard would likewise come 'outside of the courtroom.' --With assistance from John Harney. (Updates with Columbia's comment on civil rights violation, and comment from Education Secretary in last paragraph.) 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CNN
18 hours ago
- Politics
- CNN
Acting Columbia president speaks out after $220 million settlement with Trump admin.
Columbia University announced that it has reached a $200 million settlement with the Trump administration following months of negotiation to restore federal funding to the school. The Trump administration accused the university of violating anti-discrimination laws and froze federal funding to critical scientific research. Columbia did not admit to wrongdoing. Acting Columbia University president Claire Shipman discussed the settlement with CNN's Kate Bolduan.
