The Trump administration announced Friday its plan to cut $400 million in federal grants and contracts to New York City’s Columbia University, alleging the school has failed to protect Jewish students on campus.
Columbia made international news when peaceful student protesters took over common areas to protest Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip that began in October 2023 and only reached a fragile ceasefire arrangement last month. Since last year, the university has expelled several students over the protests and pushed out several members of staff.
In a joint statement, four departments — the Justice Department, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Education and the General Services Administration — said the decision “serves as a notice to every school and university that receives federal dollars that this Administration will use all the tools at its disposal to protect Jewish students and end anti-Semitism on college campuses.”
“Doing business with the Federal Government is a privilege,” said Josh Gruenbaum, commissioner of the GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service.
The Trump administration announced Monday that a task force would complete “a comprehensive review” of Columbia’s federal contracts and grants. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said at the time that “the censorship and false narratives of woke cancel culture have transformed our great universities into greenhouses for this deadly and virulent pestilence.”
