- Federal agencies canceled $400 million in grants and contracts to Columbia University due to its "inaction" against harassment of Jewish students.
- Education Secretary Linda McMahon warned other universities that federal funding recipients must comply with antidiscrimination laws and protect Jewish students from harassment.
- Columbia University pledged to work with the federal government to restore funding while committing to combat antisemitism on campus.
Four federal agencies came together in a joint statement on Friday, announcing “the immediate cancellation” of $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University over the university’s “continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.”
This recent move to cut the university’s funding follows a pro-Palestinian protest Wednesday and another a week earlier, which sent a security guard to the hospital, according to The Washington Free Beacon.
The protests on Columbia campus are nothing new. Since the Hamas-led attacks against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Columbia University has seen at least eight nationally covered pro-Palestinian protests, with several involving assaults on students and employees.
From April to June 2024, students set up the Gaza Solidarity Encampment on campus. Then-university president Minouche Shafik authorized the New York Police Department to take the encampment down. NYPD arrested over 100 protesters, but another encampment was erected the following day.
Columbia ended up canceling its university-wide spring graduation, and in August 2024, Shafik stepped down.
In the spring of 2024, pro-Palestinian protests broke out at several universities across the country, including at the University of Utah.
Education secretary says funding cuts should be a warning to all universities
Recently confirmed Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a press release Friday that universities receiving federal funding will be expected to “comply with all federal antidiscrimination laws.”
“Since Oct. 7, Jewish students have faced relentless violence, intimidation, and anti-Semitic harassment on their campuses — only to be ignored by those who are supposed to protect them,” McMahon said. She added that Friday’s federal funding cuts should be a warning sign to other universities “that we will not tolerate their appalling inaction any longer.”
Federal Acquisition Commissioner Josh Gruenbaum commented on the recent funding cuts.
“Columbia University, through their continued and shameful inaction to stop radical protesters from taking over buildings on campus and lack of response to the safety issues for Jewish students, and for that matter — all students — are not upholding the ideals of this administration or the American people,” Gruenbaum said.
He continued, “Columbia cannot expect to retain the privilege of receiving federal taxpayer dollars if they will not fulfill their civil rights responsibilities to protect Jewish students from harassment and anti-Semitism.”
The agency’s move to cut funding received some support from Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., per his X post. The senator wrote, “Columbia pays for its failure, and I support that.”
Of Columbia’s $6.6 billion yearly operating revenue, around one-fifth comes from federal research grants.
Columbia responds, hopes to ‘restore’ federal funding
“We are reviewing the announcement from the federal agencies and pledge to work with the federal government to restore Columbia’s federal funding,” a spokeswoman told the Free Beacon.
Columbia is “committed to combatting antisemitism and ensuring the safety and well-being of our students, faculty, and staff,” she said.
The university also publicly responded to Wednesday’s protest, saying the university was “aware of a disruption” at a library in their affiliated school, Barnard College. “The disruption of academic activities is not acceptable conduct. We are committed to supporting our Columbia student body and our campus community during this challenging time,” they said.
The Free Beacon reported that the protest was led by Columbia University Apartheid Divest and Students for Justice in Palestine. During the rally, the protesters gave students Hamas propaganda that justified Oct. 7 attacks.
Video from the protest posted to a pro-Palestine activist account shows footage of the students demanding the university’s administration “unexpel” four students who were recently banned from campus.
More cuts to come?
The Department of Education, the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services announced on Wednesday they would be looking into antisemitism cases at four other universities besides Columbia.
These universities include Northwestern University, Portland State University, the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
However, the student resistance does not seem too concerned over funding cuts. In an X post, Friday afternoon, Unity of Fields wrote, “The youth at Columbia will not stop resisting. Why should they? The Holocaust in Gaza continues, the university is still embedded in the military-industrial-complex, they are still being brutalized and repressed. As long as this continues, so will resistance to it.”