03/14/2025March 14, 2025
Trump Administration tells Columbia Univeristy to change policies or lose funding
President Donald Trump’s administration has threatened to revoke federal funding from Columbia University unless it gives up control of its international studies department and makes significant policy changes.
In a letter sent from the Department of Education, General Services Administration and Department of Health and Human Services, federal officials said the university must immediately place its Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies Department under “academic receivership for a minimum of five years.”
Columbia must also ban masks on campus that are meant to conceal the wearer’s identity or intimidate others, adopt a new definition of antisemitism, and abolish its current process for administering discipline to students.
“We expect your immediate compliance with these critical next steps,” officials wrote.
Last week, the government said it was canceling $400 million (€367 million) in federal grants.and contracts to the school.
The university has a 30-day period in which it can try to address the government’s concerns.
The Trump administration is exerting growing pressure on the university, which was the epicenter of at dozens of US college campuses last spring.
At the same time the Department of Education said it was investigating 45 universities, citing complaints that the schools engaged with a program that set eligibility based on race.
“Today’s announcement expands our efforts to ensure universities are not discriminating against their students based on race and race stereotypes,” US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in the statement.
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