Columbia University has agreed to pay the federal government $200 million to resolve multiple investigations and restore funding the Trump administration pulled from the New York City-based school in the spring.
In March, the White House withheld $400 million from Columbia over what it described as the university’s “inaction” regarding alleged antisemitic harassment on its campus. Of the pulled funds, $250 million was tied to grants from the National institutes of Health that supported the work of physicians and researchers at Colubmia’s medical school, the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.
“With the agreement, our access to billions of dollars in federal research funding will resume. Terminated grants will be reinstated and our faculty will become eligible again for future grants, as well as continuations of existing grants,” Claire Shipman, Columbia’s acting president, said in a public letter July 23.
Columbia described the agreement as a settlement, but, as Ms. Shipman stressed, it is not an admission of wrongdoing.
“The University has not admitted wrongdoing and does not agree with the government’s conclusion that it violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act,” Ms. Shipman said. “We are not, however, denying the very serious and painful challenges our institution has faced with antisemitism. For these reasons, we took several important corrective steps in March, many of which are in this agreement.”
The $200 million settlement will be paid out over three years, according to the letter. Columbia will also pay an additional $21 million to resolve investigations by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
As part of the agreement, Columbia and federal agencies will also work with an independent monitor and arbitrator to oversee compliance. Ms. Shipman said this neutral third-party review was included to prevent the federal government from exerting direct control over academic or operational decisions at the university.
