Columbia University is reportedly considering capitulating to President Trump’s demands — including a mask ban and a major crackdown on campus anti-Israel protests — as a deadline looms to comply or risk losing some $400 million in federal funding.
Claiming the Ivy League school has failed to follow anti-discrimination laws, the Trump administration announced plans earlier this month to claw back the grants and contracts — representing roughly 8% of its US-taxpayer funding — pending a review period, which ends on Thursday.
Citing unnamed university officials, the Wall Street Journal described a schism developing among the school’s board of trustees, with some in favor of giving in to the demands and others voicing concern that acquiescing would mean Columbia was “trading away its moral authority and academic independence for federal funds.”
In a March 19 letter, interim CU president Katrina Armstrong acknowledged that the past two years “have highlighted real cracks in our existing structures” — and pledged the school would “never compromise our values of pedagogical independence, our commitment to academic freedom, or our obligation to follow the law.”
She highlighted efforts the university has taken in recent weeks — including announcing a new policy against doxxing and online harassment — but stopped short of offering a definitive statement about how the school would ultimately respond to the administration’s dictates.
A Columbia spokesperson declined to comment on the matter beyond Armstrong’s letter.
The administration is imposing nine specific demands as a “precondition for formal negotiations” regarding the elite school’s “continued financial relationship with the United States government,” which representatives of the General Services Administration, the Education Department and Health and Human Services detailed in a March 13 letter.
Among them, Columbia is being instructed to “enforce existing disciplinary policies,” namely, punish those responsible for the violent takeover of Hamilton Hall in April 2024, during which dozens of masked anti-Israel rioters smashed their way into the academic building and barricaded themselves inside.
Months after the protests former Columbia president Minouche Shafik suddenly resigned, blaming a “period of turmoil” for her shocking departure.
“Meaningful discipline means expulsion or multi-year suspension,” the demand specifies. The university announced last week it had expelled and suspended an unspecified number of students involved in the incident, though it was not clear whether it was a direct result of Trump’s order.
The government is also demanding the school abolish its University Judicial Board, and instead centralize all disciplinary processes under the university president — who it directs to be empowered to suspend or expel students with an appeals process.
The list of demands also includes a requirement to ban masks — with carve-outs for religious and health reasons — but specifying any masked individual must display their CU identification outside their clothing.
Pressure has been mounting on Columbia to enact a mask ban — with the support of Jewish alumni groups and elected officials such as Bronx Rep. Ritchie Torres and NYC Mayor Eric Adams — but the school has not budged on the issue thus far.
Columbia must also agree to hold accountable student groups who engage in violations of university policy through formal investigations, disciplinary proceedings and expulsion as appropriate, the order states.
Earlier this month, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia protest leader, at his university-owned apartment. He’s since been brought to an ICE facility in Louisiana and the Trump administration plans to deport him for leading “activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.”
Khalil and his attorneys have challenged his arrest and detention as unlawful, and a court battle is underway to determine if the administration has legal standing to kick the Syrian-born Palestinian — who had a green card — out of the country.
One of the most sweeping demands is that the school’s Middle East, South Asian and African Studies departments be placed under “academic receivership” for at least five years, which would give someone outside of the departments the power to make decisions for the faculty.
The Journal writes that in rare cases where university departments are placed under receivership, schools typically place the responsibility in the hands of a dean from another department.
“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 concludes.
Columbia isn’t the only school in the Trump administration’s crosshairs.
On March 10, the Department of Education’s civil rights arm warned 60 more colleges and universities their federal funds could be next on the chopping block over antisemitic discrimination and harassment on campus.
