Columbia faces White House pressure over antisemitism, as other US colleges watch
Trump administration, after pulling $400 million in research funds, makes series of demands as ‘precondition’ for negotiating; some faculty say move violates their rights
Confronted with huge cuts to its funding, Columbia University’s leaders face a grim choice: They can yield to the Trump administration’s demands over how to address antisemitism on campus — ceding extraordinary control to the US federal government — or they can fight back, potentially risking even more debilitating cuts in an escalating clash.
However it responds, Columbia carries tremendous weight. The New York university, which was a national focal point for anti-Israel protests following the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led invasion of Israel, is the first school to face such aggressive intervention from the Trump administration, but dozens of others have been put on notice.
“People in the academy around the country are looking to see what Columbia does here,” said Samuel Bagenstos, a law professor at the University of Michigan who served until December as general counsel for the Health and Human Services Department.
The Trump administration’s threats against Columbia escalated last week with a list of demands that White House officials called a “precondition” for negotiating over federal funding. It told the college to place its Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies Department into “academic receivership” and reorganize discipline processes, among other changes.
It gave Columbia until this week to comply.
Columbia hasn’t signaled its plans. Responding to the latest demands, interim President Katrina Armstrong promised the school “will stand by its values” but did not elaborate.
NEW letter to Columbia from Trump admin lists demands for “continued financial relationship” with the US government”:
—Suspend or expel students for Hamilton Hall protest
—“Time, place, and manner rules”
—Mask ban
—Address “anti-Zionist” discrimination
—Reform admissions
—MORE pic.twitter.com/djCc31Vq2Q— Prem Thakker (@prem_thakker) March 14, 2025
On March 7, just 32 days after opening an investigation at Columbia, the Trump administration pulled $400 million in research grants and other federal money. It threatened to cut billions more over the university’s handling of protests against the war in Gaza and allegations of antisemitism.
Several law scholars said the school could make a strong case that Trump officials illegally pulled Columbia’s federal money.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 allows the Education Department to terminate funding to colleges that violate civil rights laws, but only after taking certain steps. Title VI of the law says the department must first make a formal finding of noncompliance, offer a hearing, notify Congress and then wait 30 days before pulling aid.
It appears at least some steps weren’t followed, Bagenstos said.
“There has been no express finding, there has been no record, there has been no opportunity for a hearing,” he said. “This is just dramatically in violation of the procedural requirements under Title VI.”
‘Pervasive’ antisemitism on campus
Columbia, which has long been an important institution for Palestinian studies, has served as a hotbed of anti-Israel activism since the Hamas attack triggered the ongoing war in Gaza.
Almost nonstop protests since the onslaught have included tent encampments, classroom disruptions, frequent protests outside and inside the university gates, and the forced entry and occupation of campus buildings, injuring university workers and damaging property. Dozens of students have been arrested and some expelled.
Both protest leaders and some faculty, including Joseph Massad — who teaches a course on Zionism — have praised the October 7 onslaught, in which terrorists killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages. Students have frequently endorsed violence against “Zionists.”
Two university janitors who were trapped inside a building taken over by campus protesters last year said they were repeatedly called “Jew-lovers” and feared for their lives, according to records obtained by The Times of Israel earlier this week from ongoing civil rights litigation.
One Jewish professor has quit the university since October 7 citing anti-Israel bias, while another had to retire after a probe found she herself had discriminated against Israelis.
Now, the administration is also seeking to deport student leader Mahmoud Khalil, an Algerian citizen with US permanent residency, over espousals of support for Hamas.
The move has sparked huge backlash and accusations of quelling free speech. The White House, however, says it is not a matter of censorship, but rather the enforcement of existing immigration laws that say an alien is “deportable” if he “endorses or espouses terrorist activity.”
Columbia professors say Trump order is illegal
Seven professors at Columbia Law School issued their own legal analysis Saturday, finding that the Trump administration’s letter violates the Title VI standards along with First Amendment protections and due process rights, among other problems.
The government’s demands threaten “fundamental legal principles and the mission of colleges and universities across the country,” according to the analysis, posted online by David Pozen, a constitutional law professor.
Columbia has little precedent to draw upon as it weighs its next steps. Presidential administrations traditionally have taken a cooperative approach to get colleges to comply with federal law. But the Trump administration is taking an adversarial role, moving quickly from demands to penalties.
Kenneth Marcus, who led the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights during Trump’s first term, said the administration appears to be using its wide latitude over federal contracts to pressure Columbia, rather than limiting itself to the “cumbersome, bureaucratic, and relatively weak” Title VI process.
“The Trump administration is moving faster and punching harder than we’ve seen in the past, and that clearly is going to have a greater impact than prior administrations,” said Marcus, who now leads the Brandeis Center, a Jewish civil rights nonprofit.
Marcus called it a creative and novel strategy that hasn’t been tested in the courts, but he said Columbia is wise to take a cooperative stance.
“Columbia no doubt realizes that the initial $400 million problem can balloon into a multi-billion dollar disaster if they respond poorly,” he said.
The administration’s strategy is part of a hardline approach laid out in a March 7 memo placing antisemitism as a top priority for the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights. Instead of ending cases with “toothless reform proposals,” it demands meaningful changes to campus policies with a “strong emphasis on compliance.”
One of the office’s new goals is to deter “would-be civil rights violators from engaging in this conduct in the first instance,” according to the memo, obtained by The Associated Press.
The Times of Israel Community.