Trump Lists 9 Demands for Columbia University to Keep Federal Funding
Credit: Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images- The Trump administration has issued an ultimatum to Columbia University, stating that the university has failed to protect students and faculty from “antisemitic violence and harassment.”
- The letter from federal officials mandates the university to change its discipline and admissions policies and review its international admissions policy, among other requirements, before March 20.
- Columbia said it is in the process of reviewing the letter.
- Academic freedom activists caution that this intrudes on the university’s academic freedom.
The Trump administration has issued Columbia University an ultimatum: Comply with a list of demands or risk losing all federal funding.
Federal officials from the departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Education (ED), and the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) sent a letter to the private institution Thursday night stating that the university must comply with a list of demands by March 20.
Those demands include “meaningful discipline” for encampment participants and yielding control of its Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies (MESAAS).
The Trump administration officials wrote that the demands are considered a “precondition for formal negotiations” regarding the university’s “continued financial relationship with the United States government.”
The letter states that Columbia has “fundamentally failed to protect American students and faculty from antisemitic violence and harassment,” along with allegedly violating the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin.
The letter requires the university to “complete disciplinary proceedings” for participants in the spring 2024 encampment and occupation of Hamilton Hall, emphasizing that “meaningful discipline means expulsion or multi-year suspension.”
The letter also demands that Columbia University abolish the University Judicial Board and centralize all disciplinary processes under the Office of the President, empowering the office to “suspend or expel students.”
It goes further to demand that the university ban masks “intended to conceal identity or intimidate others,” mandating that students wearing masks also wear a university ID on the outside of their clothing.
Columbia must also “begin the process” of placing MESAAS under academic receivership — whereby the school relinquishes control of the department to an external party — for at least five years.
The letter includes more demands, including that the university:
- Implements “permanent” and “comprehensive” time, place, and manner rules
- Formally investigates and disciplines recognized student groups and students who supported unrecognized groups that violated university policies
- Adopts a new definition of antisemitism under President Donald Trump’s 2019 executive order
- Develops an admissions reform plan that includes undergraduate and graduate admissions as well as international recruiting
“We expect your immediate compliance with these critical next steps, after which we hope to open a conversation about immediate and long-term structural reforms that will return Columbia to its original mission of innovative research and academic excellence,” the letter read.
In a statement to BestColleges, a Columbia spokesperson said that the university was “reviewing the letter,” adding, “We are committed at all times to advancing our mission, supporting our students, and addressing all forms of discrimination and hatred on our campus.”
On March 3, HHS, ED, and GSA issued a statement saying they would be reviewing Columbia University’s more than $5 billion federal grant commitments to ensure the institution was complying with federal regulations.
Four days later, along with the Department of Justice, they announced that $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University would be canceled due to the university’s “continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.”
Since then, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has announced it has terminated more than 400 grants to Columbia — worth more than $250 million in funding — following the direction of the Trump administration, adding that the cancellations are due to the university’s “continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.”
Columbia University’s interim President Katrina Armstrong said in a March 7 letter to students and faculty that there is “no question” the cancellation of funds will impact research and other “critical functions” at the university.
The Trump administration is pursuing 59 other higher education institutions, claiming they violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act related to “antisemitic harassment and discrimination.” Many saw pro-Palestine protest encampments erected on their campuses during the spring 2024 semester.
Advocacy groups have spoken out against the federal government’s ultimatum, saying the department’s demands go “far beyond what is appropriate for the government to mandate” and will negatively impact free speech on campus.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) said in a statement that requiring an academic department to be put under academic receivership is a “clear intrusion on academic freedom,” and there is “no basis to believe” that the federal government can mandate the university eliminate its judicial board or order specific punishments for students.
“The demands in the letter pose a problem, but so [does] the process the government is using to issue those demands. This is not the normal procedure for revocation of federal financial assistance for violations of Title VI,” FIRE said.
“…The threat to both free speech and academic freedom are clear, and last night’s letter is a blueprint to supercharge campus censorship.”
In a statement to BestColleges, Kristen Shahverdian, program director for campus free speech at advocacy group PEN America, said the Trump administration is using Columbia University as a “test case” to see “how far they can take their attacks on higher education.”
“The demands in this letter are an unprecedented assault on free speech, academic freedom and institutional autonomy,” she said, adding: “For students the ramifications are huge. They are now on alert more than ever that their speech will result in a government crackdown — the likes of which we have not seen in our lifetimes.”
Reporting contributed by: Matthew Arrojas, Jessica Bryant, Evan Castillo, and Elin Johnson