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Trump administration yanks $400M in grants, contracts from Columbia University over antisemitism on campus

By Josh Christenson

Published March 7, 2025, 12:51 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration pulled back roughly $400 million in grants and contracts from Columbia University on Friday, citing the Ivy League school’s noncompliance with anti-discrimination laws.

A federal antisemitism task force — convened by President Trump and including the Departments of Justice, Health and Human Services (HHS), and Education as well as the General Services Administration (GSA) — announced that roughly 8% of the university’s US-taxpayer funding was being pulled.

“Since October 7, Jewish students have faced relentless violence, intimidation, and anti-Semitic harassment on their campuses — only to be ignored by those who are supposed to protect them,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement.

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Students march at a protest outside of Columbia University on Nov. 15, 2023.Getty Images

“Universities must comply with all federal antidiscrimination laws if they are going to receive federal funding. For too long, Columbia has abandoned that obligation to Jewish students studying on its campus. Today, we demonstrate to Columbia and other universities that we will not tolerate their appalling inaction any longer.”

More funding cancellations are likely to follow, the Joint Task Force to Combat Antisemitism also said in their announcementD

Pro-Palestinian protesters hang a banner outside of Columbia University on March 4, 2025.AFP via Getty Images

“Columbia has an antisemitism crisis, and for months, I have worked with faculty, staff, students, parents, and alumni to urge the administration to act quickly to address this crisis and avoid lasting damage to the University,” said Brian Cohen, executive Director of Columbia and Barnard’s Hillel chapter.

“I hope this federal action is a wake-up call to Columbia’s administration and trustees to take antisemitism and the harassment of Jewish students and faculty seriously so that these grants can be restored, the vital work of the University can continue, and that Columbia can become, once again, a place where the Jewish community thrives.”

The GSA has been deputized to issue “stop-work orders” on the hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants to Columbia by the DOJ, HHS and Education Department.

Federal officials signaled earlier this week that at least $51.4 million worth of contracts were ready to be put on the chopping block.

Student protesters gather inside their encampment on the Columbia University campus, April 29, 2024, in New York.AP

In total, the feds have more than $5 billion in grant commitments with the Ivy League university that are currently under review.

An audit began Monday and combed through Columbia’s finances following a series of antisemitic incidents on campus and an ongoing federal civil rights probe.

“We are reviewing the announcement from the federal agencies and pledge to work with the federal government to restore Columbia’s federal funding,” a university spokesperson told The Post in a statement.

“We take Columbia’s legal obligations seriously and understand how serious this announcement is and are committed to combatting antisemitism and ensuring the safety and wellbeing of our students, faculty, and staff.”AD

The antisemitism task force noted that the university has “not responded” to their requests for information needed for a so-called Title VI investigation, referring to the section of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in federally funded programs.

“Anti-Semitism is clearly inconsistent with the fundamental values that should inform liberal education,” said Sean Keveney, HHS Acting General Counsel and a task force member. 

“Columbia University’s complacency is unacceptable.”

Anti-Israel activists protest on Columbia University’s campus.Matthew McDermottAD

McMahon, 76, pointed out on “Fox and Friends” Friday morning that the Columbia probe by the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights was one of “five investigations now into different universities to make sure that they are not allowing antisemitism.”

The other schools under scrutiny are Northwestern University, Portland State University, the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Minnesota.

“To allow this kind of unrest, this is not about freedom of speech,” the education secretary said of the universities’ conduct. “They have to quell these uprisings and not allow faculty to be attacked or other students to be attacked.”

The funding cancellation comes after more than a year of incidents of antisemitic harassment and intimidation on the Morningside Heights campus following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

Protesters have handed anti-Israel flyers out on Columbia’s campus, disrupting classes to spread their message, witnesses have told The Post. X/LishiBaker

Demonstrators descended on Columbia and set up a tent city toward the end of the spring semester in 2024 — and later occupied the historic Hamilton Hall building — before being driven out by the NYPD.

No students who participated were expelled and just four were suspended in the aftermath, according to the findings of a scathing House Republican report issued in December.

“Columbia said the 22 students arrested for the criminal takeover of Hamilton Hall would face expulsion. Instead, the University lifted the students’ interim suspensions after pushback from radical faculty, allowing 7 to graduate, restoring 11 to good standing, and leaving 3 with preexisting sanctions suspended and 1 on probation,” according to the report, whose contents were first revealed by The Post.

Hamas even publicly endorsed the undergrads’ demonstrations.

“We in the Hamas movement believe that any popular movement demanding an end to the aggression and genocide against our people are useful and supportive activities for our cause,” a terror group spokesman Bassem Naim told Newsweek as the protests reached a fever pitch in April.

Jewish students also filed lawsuits against the university over the “rampant antisemitism” on campus during the 2023-24 school year — with one undergrad settling for $395,000 with the school after being disciplined for jokingly deploying “novelty fart sprays” against anti-Israel protesters.

Columbia University president Minouche Shafik resigned from her post this past August after having testified to Congress that pro-jihadist slogans protesters proclaimed on campus were “hurtful” but didn’t rise to the level of antisemitism.

U.S. Ambassador-Designate to the United Nations, Elise Stefanik, said the move will ensure taxpayers don’t fund the “cesspools of antisemitism.”Getty Images for Anti-Defamation League

New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, whose work on the House Education Committee investigating Columbia contributed to Shafik’s resignation, told The Post that the move against Columbia will make sure “hardworking taxpayer dollars do not fund these cesspools of antisemitism.”

“President Trump is delivering on his promise to hold universities like Columbia accountable by defunding them for failing to protect their Jewish community,” added Stefanik, whose nomination as US ambassador to the United Nations is pending before the Senate.

Last month, two Barnard College students were finally expelled a month after participating in a masked anti-Israel protest that invaded a classroom studying Israeli history and distributed sick “Hamas Media Office” flyers glorifying terrorism.

“The era of the federal government enabling Jew-hatred is over,” declared the watchdog group StopAntisemitism. “We applaud the Trump Administration for heeding our calls to defund Columbia University and urge this to be just the first of many decisive actions.”

Reps for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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