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Fifth Column | |
Columbia reaches $200M settlement with Trump administration over campus antisemitism | |
2025-07-24 | |
[IsraelTimes] University doesn’t admit to wrongdoing as part of agreement but notes its leaders acknowledge that Jewish students and faculty ‘have experienced painful, unacceptable incidents’ Columbia University said on Wednesday it will pay over $200 million to the US government in a settlement with President Donald Trump ...The tack in the backside of the Democratic Party... ’s administration to resolve federal probes and to have most of its suspended federal funding restored. Trump has targeted universities including Columbia since returning to the White House in January over the pro-Paleostinian, anti-Israel student protest movement that has roiled college campuses since the October 7, 2023, Hamas ![]() -led terror onslaught that started the ongoing Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppressionand disproportionate response... war. In March, the Trump administration said it was penalizing the university 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. "Under today’s agreement, 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 said in a statement. The statement stressed that "Columbia does not admit to wrongdoing with this resolution agreement" but said "the institution’s leaders have recognized, repeatedly, that Jewish students and faculty have experienced painful, unacceptable incidents, and that reform was and is needed." "The agreement builds on Columbia’s broader commitment to combating antisemitism," it added. The university said it has also agreed to settle investigations brought by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for $21 million and that its deal with the Trump administration preserved Columbia’s "autonomy and authority over faculty hiring, admissions, and academic decision-making." Additionally, the settlement includes 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." After the government announced the funding cancellations, the school announced a series of commitments in response to the Trump administration’s concerns. Last week, Columbia adopted a definition of antisemitism that defines some forms of anti-Israel rhetoric as Jew hatred. The school also said it would no longer engage with anti-Israel group Columbia University Apartheid Divest, which has praised " The Trump administration had no immediate comment on the deal with Columbia. Trump had said in recent weeks that a deal with the university was close. Wednesday’s announcement came a day after the university disciplined dozens of students over a pro-Paleostinian protest in May in which demonstrators seized Columbia’s main library, and followed 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 campus protests against Israel and on colleges that he says allowed Jewish students to be threatened and harassed. Columbia’s own antisemitism task force found last summer that Jewish students had faced verbal abuse, ostracism and classroom humiliation during demonstrations on campus last spring. US State Department investigating Harvard’s eligibility for exchange student program [IsraelTimes] Secretary of State Marco Rubio says probe to ensure funds don’t go to programs that ‘run contrary to nation’s interests’; Harvard condemns ‘yet another retaliatory step’ by Trump
Harvard seeks billions in funding restored at hearing in its standoff with Trump over antisemitism on campus [IsraelTimes] Harvard University appears in federal court in a pivotal case in its battle with the Trump administration, as the storied institution argues that the government illegally cut $2.6 billion in federal funding. US President Donald Trump’s administration has battered the nation’s oldest and wealthiest university with sanctions for months, as it presses a series of demands on the Ivy League school, which it decries as a hotbed of liberalism and antisemitism. Harvard has resisted, and the lawsuit over the cuts to its research grants represents the primary challenge to the administration in a standoff that is being widely watched across higher education and beyond. A lawyer for Harvard, Steven Lehotsky, says at the hearing that the case is about the government trying to control the “inner workings” of Harvard. The funding cuts, if not reversed, could lead to the loss of research, damaged careers, and the closing of labs, he says. The case is before US District Judge Allison Burroughs, who has been presiding over lawsuits brought by Harvard against the administration’s efforts to keep it from hosting international students. In that case, she temporarily blocked the administration’s efforts. At today’s hearing Harvard is asking her to reverse a series of funding freezes. Such a ruling, if it stands, would revive Harvard’s sprawling scientific and medical research operation and hundreds of projects that lost federal money. A lawyer for the government, Michael Velchik, says the government has authority to cancel research grants when an institution is out of compliance with the president’s directives. He said episodes at Harvard violated Trump’s order combating antisemitism. At the public school level: Board of largest US teachers union rejects members’ proposal to sever ties with ADL[IsraelTimes] The board of directors for the National Education Association, the United States’ largest teachers union, has rejected a proposal by its delegates to sever ties with the Anti-Defamation League. The rejection on Friday night comes after the delegates’ proposal earlier this month to bar the union from using, endorsing or publicizing any materials from the ADL drew condemnation from prominent Jewish organizations across the country. In a statement announcing the board’s rejection of the proposal Friday, Becky Pringle, the president of the National Education Association, emphasized that the decision was not a statement of support for the ADL. She also called on the Jewish civil rights watchdog to “support the free speech” of students and educators, in an apparent allusion to criticism of the ADL for opposing some forms of pro-Palestinian advocacy in schools. | |
Posted by:trailing wife |
#2 Columbia U also promised to begin to follow Title VI law. Woo Hoo! The best potentially non monetary thing about this settlement is, as I understand it, there will be a permanent compliance officer, not affiliated with Columbia who will monitor. How much time he spends on this and whether he is diligent or just picking up a paycheck is yet to be determined. In any event, I'm pretty sure Columbia has taken a prestige hit and although enrollment by Jews hasn't significantly declined, I'm pretty sure the number of contributors to its endowment has gone down a lot. |
Posted by: Lord Garth 2025-07-24 13:18 |
#1 Basically, The University admits it screwed up and allowed harm to be done to Jewish Students. But still got to keep a vast majority of it's Federal $$$$$ nonetheless. While creating a meaningless questionier for international students that can easily dance around the truth or fact. |
Posted by: NN2N1 2025-07-24 05:05 |