Columbia reaches $221M settlement with Trump administration over antisemitism allegations

The pro-Palestinian encampment on the lawn in front of Columbia University’s Butler Library in April 2024. Protesters took over a reading room in the library Wednesday. Photo by ProudFarmerScholar, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

(JTA) — Columbia University announced Wednesday night that it had agreed to a $220 million settlement with the Trump administration, bringing a close to months of tense negotiations between the two parties over allegations of antisemitism on the school’s campus.

“While Columbia does not admit to wrongdoing with this resolution agreement, the institution’s leaders have recognized, repeatedly, that Jewish students and faculty have experienced painful, unacceptable incidents, and that reform was and is needed,” Columbia wrote in a statement announcing the deal Wednesday.

The deal will free up hundreds of millions of dollars in federal research money that was cancelled by the Trump administration in March, one of the first salvoes by the administration in its campaign against campus antisemitism and pro-Palestinian protests. It is seen as a template by which other universities targeted by Trump might make their own deals.

As part of the deal, the school will pay a $200 million settlement over three years to the federal government. It will also pay $21 million to settle investigations brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission — delivering payments directly to employees who said they had been discriminated against.

The deal will also codify an existing set of Trump administration demands that Columbia met in March as part of a bid to win back its federal funding, and builds on the school’s July 15 commitments to combatting antisemitism on its campus that included the adoption of an Israel-related antisemitism definition. Those demands include following laws barring the consideration of race in admission and hiring, though the school said in its announcement that the deal would allow it to maintain “autonomy and authority over faculty hiring, admissions, and academic decision-making.”

An independent monitor will oversee the deal’s implementation and issue reports twice a year, according to the announcement.

In a statement Wednesday, acting Columbia president Claire Shipman said that the agreement marked an “important step forward after a period of sustained federal scrutiny and institutional uncertainty.”

“Importantly, it safeguards our independence, a critical condition for academic excellence and scholarly exploration, work that is vital to the public interest,” continued Shipman.

While some Jewish students and faculty at Columbia have criticized the Trump administration for its battle against the school, accusing the administration of using allegations of antisemitism as a guise to take aim at higher education, others have welcomed the scrutiny.

In a statement Wednesday night, Columbia/Barnard Hillel Executive Director Brian Cohen called the deal a “major step forward.”

“This announcement is an important recognition of what Jewish students and their families have expressed with increasing urgency: antisemitism at Columbia is real, and it has had a tangible impact on Jewish students’ sense of safety and belonging and, in turn, their civil rights,” Cohen said.

“Acknowledging this fact is essential, and along with the new path laid out by the President and Trustees, I am hopeful that today’s agreement marks the beginning of real, sustained change,” Cohen continued.