Columbia University is close to a deal with the Trump administration to restore “most” of the $400 million in grants and contracts the federal government froze in March, The Washington Free Beacon reported.
The draft agreement, which Columbia’s trustees met to discuss on Sunday, would “compensate the victims of unlawful discrimination and increase the transparency of its hiring and admissions process” but lacks some of the more “onerous provisions” that the White House initially demanded, including “a consent decree and reforms to Columbia’s governance structure,” per the Free Beacon.
A White House official told JNS that the university and the White House are close to a deal.
Ari Shrage, co-founder of the Columbia Jewish Alumni Association, told JNS that the reported proposal risks letting the university evade accountability. (JNS sought comment from the school.)
“We are deeply concerned that the deal on the table with Columbia lacks the essential governance reforms required to make meaningful change,” he said. “This sends the wrong message not just to Columbia but to all universities looking on and wondering what they can get away with.”
To Shrage, “now is the time to finally hold the university accountable and send a clear message that antisemitism will not be tolerated.”
Elisha Baker, a rising senior at Columbia, told JNS that the reported agreement fails to address the university’s “dysfunctional” governance structure.
“The university senate, for the entire past two years, has been the number one inhibitor of strong action to hold people accountable to Columbia’s mission and prevent discrimination,” he said. “They have rolled back protest regulations when what we needed were stronger regulations, and they blocked disciplinary proceedings when what we needed was accountability.”
Baker told JNS that he wants Columbia to restore its federal funding.
“I don’t want to tear down the university,” he said. “I want this to be a deal that’s a win for the Jewish community, a win for the university, and a win for the United States and American values.”
Eden Yadegar, who graduated from Columbia in May, told JNS that the reported terms are “disheartening.”
“I am a proponent of a strong deal that follows through on the promise of holding universities that promote antisemitism and anti-Americanism accountable,” she told JNS.
“Based on what’s been reported, this deal seems like it would result in leaving discipline in the hands of leaders with no will to drive change,” she said, “and some of the very faculty members that have been fueling the hostile environment that has been dominating campus since Oct. 7.”
