Settlement marks victory in US President Donald Trump’s efforts to exert greater control over third-level education.Columbia University, one of the top educational institutions in the United States, has agreed to pay $221m to settle claims by US President Donald Trump’s administration that it failed to police anti-Semitism on campus.
Under the agreement announced on Wednesday, Columbia will see the “vast majority” of $400m in federal grants frozen by the Trump administration reinstated, the New York-based university said.
Columbia will also regain access to billions of dollars in current and future grants under the deal, the university said.
Columbia said the agreement formalised reforms announced in March to address harassment against Jews, including the hiring of more public safety personnel, changes to disciplinary processes, and efforts to foster “an inclusive and respectful learning environment”.
The agreement also commits Columbia to maintaining merit-based admissions and ending programs that promote “unlawful efforts to achieve race-based outcomes, quotas [and] diversity targets”.
Under the agreement, Columbia will pay the federal government $200m over three years, in addition to a $21m payment to settle claims by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Claire Shipman, Columbia’s acting president, said that while the settlement was “substantial”, the university could not continue with a situation that would “jeopardize our status as a world-leading research institution”.
“Furthermore, as I have discussed on many occasions with our community, we …
