Trump cuts $400m in funding to Columbia University after anti-Semitism claims

Students were at forefront of US campus protests against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza

Student protesters gather in their encampment at Columbia University, in April 2024. AP Photo

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The Trump administration said on Friday that it had cancelled grants and contracts worth about $400 million to Columbia University because of what it described as anti-Semitic harassment on and near the school's New York City campus.

The cuts were announced in a joint statement by the departments of Justice, Education and Health and Human Services, as well as the General Services Administration.

The Trump administration declined to specify the grants and contracts affected or its evidence of anti-Semitic harassment. The cuts would come out of what it said was more than $5 billion in grants presently committed to Columbia. Much of the funding goes to healthcare and scientific research.

The move is likely to face legal challenges, with civil rights groups saying the contract cancellations lacked due process and were an unconstitutional punishment for protected speech.

Columbia has been at the forefront of a pro-Palestine and anti-Israel student protest movement that swept across campuses over the past year as Israel carried out a military offensive against Hamas in Gaza.

The university has said it has worked to combat anti-Semitism and other prejudice on its campus while fending off accusations from civil rights groups that it is letting the government erode academia's free speech protections.

Columbia protesters, some of whom seized control of an academic building for a few hours in April last year and set up tent encampments on campus lawns, have demanded the school stops investing in companies that support Israel's military occupation of Palestinian territories.

There have been allegations of anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and racism in protests and pro-Israel counter-protests.

Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a coalition of student groups behind the pro-Palestinian protests, includes Jewish students and groups among its organisers. They say that criticism of Israel is being wrongly conflated with anti-Semitism. Some Jewish and Israeli students have said the protests are intimidating and disruptive.

“Cancelling these taxpayer funds is our strongest signal yet that the federal government is not going to be party to an educational institution like Columbia that does not protect Jewish students and staff,” Leo Terrell, who leads the Justice Department's anti-Semitism task force, said in Friday’s statement.

Other colleges facing federal anti-Semitism investigations include the University of California, Berkeley; the University of Minnesota; Northwestern University and Portland State University.

Students at the University of California in Berkeley take part in nationwide campus protests against the Israeli-Gaza war. EPA

Columbia University has disciplined dozens of pro-Palestine students and staff over the last year, in many cases issuing suspensions, and twice called in police to have pro-Palestine protesters arrested, which was widely criticised by faculty.

Samantha Slater, a Columbia spokeswoman, said staff “pledge to work with the federal government to restore Columbia's federal funding”.

“We take Columbia's legal obligations seriously and understand how serious this announcement is and are committed to combating anti-Semitism and ensuring the safety and well-being of our students, faculty, and staff,” her statement said.

Under the Civil Rights Act, the government can investigate schools that receive federal funding if they are accused of discriminating against people on the basis of religion or national origin, among other protected classes.

The New York Civil Liberties Union’s executive director, Donna Lieberman, called the move an unconstitutional government effort “to coerce colleges and universities into censoring student speech and advocacy that isn’t MAGA-approved, like criticising Israel or supporting Palestinian rights”.

Jewish organisations had mixed responses to the announcement. Brian Cohen, executive director of the pro-Israel student organisation Hillel at Columbia, said in a statement he hoped the announcement would be a “wake-up call to Columbia's administration and trustees”.

J Street, a Washington-based pro-Israel advocacy group, said there were unacceptable levels of anti-Semitism at Columbia but that Friday's announcement undercut efforts to address this.

“This decision is part of the administration's broader attack on academic institutions, and may cause these same institutions to overcorrect – stifling free speech for fear of having all of their funding cut,” Erin Beiner, director of the group's student wing J Street U, said in a statement.

With reporting from Reuters and Associated Press.