Columbia University on Wednesday said it would “entertain constructive dialogue with federal regulators,” signaling it would comply with the Trump administration’s demands in return for a $400 million recovery in federal funds.
The Trump administration cancelled federal grants from the university this month, denounced “inaction in the face of permanent harassment of Jewish students.” And last week, the administration wrote to the university, saying by the end of opening hours on Wednesday, Columbia must commit by the end of opening hours “as a prerequisite” to restore federal funds.
Katrina Armstrong, interim president of the university, replied on Wednesday that Colombia “doesn’t waver from our principles and the value of academic freedom.” She also appeared to suggest that the university would follow the administration’s demands.
“We can ask legitimate questions about our practices and progress, and we will answer them,” Armstrong wrote in a letter posted to the university’s website. “But we will never compromise on the value of educational independence, our commitment to academic freedom, or our obligation to comply with the law.”
“We will continue to have a constructive dialogue with our federal regulators, as we have done throughout our history, including anti-Semitism, harassment, discrimination, the tangible progress we are making, and the strength of our commitment to this ongoing work,” she added.
She did not elaborate on the details of the university’s plans to do both.
The administration’s nine requests include the Colombian ban mask, the “full disciplinary procedure” for some student protesters, formalizing the definition of anti-Semitism, reforming the admissions process and sending it to Colombia last week, among other priorities, including research sectors in the Middle East, South Asia and Africa as “academic and African research sectors.”
The administration also called for “long-term structural” changes to universities that they would like to address in the near future.
Colombia has already adhered to at least one of the regime’s demands. On Thursday, some students who participated in the Hamilton Hall acquisition were suspended or expelled, temporarily revoking the graduate’s diploma nearly a year after the acquisition.
Some Jewish students expressed fear about protests at Colombia and other universities across the country. Others report that they were assaulted last year, as protests sometimes took over campus.
In her letter, Armstrong acknowledged that anti-Semitism is an issue on campus.
“We hope to agree that over the past two years, highlighting the actual cracks in existing structures, and creating new issues that this campus community needs to address,” she writes. “Anti-Semitism, harassment and discrimination of all sorts is unacceptable and puts both our sense of community and our academic mission at stake.”
An hour before the letter was released, the Wall Street Journal reported that the university was approaching an agreement with the Trump administration. The university declined to comment on the report.
The Trump administration’s demands and a suspend federal funding represent a broader, unprecedented attempt by the federal government to shake up the issues of higher education institutions.
In February, the Justice Department announced it had launched a task force to “harvest” what is called “anti-Semitic harassment on school and university campuses.”
In addition to chasing the university itself, the Department of Homeland Security has arrested at least two Colombian students who participated in a student-led protest against the war in Gaza this month. The arrest of one of these students, Mahmoud Khalil, 30, revitalized student activists and prompted new protests.
And on Wednesday, the White House said in a statement from X that the administration has also suspended $175 million federal grant to the University of Pennsylvania, allowing transgender women to compete on women’s sports teams. A Penn spokesman said in a statement that he had “not received any official notices or details yet” about the White House statement.
