Columbia and Trump settlement details : NPR

Pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli demonstrators compete outside Columbia University on April 22, 2024.

Charly Triballeau / AFP via Getty Images

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Charly Triballeau / AFP via Getty Images

Pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli demonstrators compete outside Columbia University on April 22, 2024.

Charly Triballeau / AFP via Getty Images

The news that Columbia University will pay more than $ 200 million in the federal government after several surveys and months of negotiations with Trump administration.

The rules announced Wednesday restores Columbia access to some $ 1.3 billion in federal funding – resume frozen grants and open opportunities for future research. And the university has agreed to take measures to slow anti -Semitism on its campus.

Here is what we know about details:

Money

Columbia agreed to pay a fine of $ 200 million to the federal government over three years. The University has agreed to pay an additional $ 21 million to settle an investigation launched in March by the Equal Opportunities Commission on harassment complaints in the workplace based on religion.

No fault admission

Columbia did not admit any reprehensible act, and the university said that it should not have raped title VI of the civil rights law in its management of anti -Semitism allegations. The settlement agreement “is not an admission in whole or in part by one or the other of the parties, and Columbia expressly denies responsibility concerning allegations or conclusions of the United States”.

However, in a letter yesterday to teachers and students, the acting president of Columbia, Claire Shipman, noted that Columbia “recognized, on several occasions, that the students and Jewish teachers have experienced painful and unacceptable incidents, and that the reform was and is necessary”.

Anti -Semitism

Shipman recognized “the very serious and painful challenges that our institution has faced with anti -Semitism”. She undertook to “work on several fronts to fight against all forms of hatred and intolerance in Columbia, and you will see more efforts for this purpose in the coming months”.

The regulations initiate Columbia to follow the previous commitments, in particular:

• Name the new members of the faculty “with joint posts at the Institute of Israel and Jewish studies and departments or areas of the economy, political science” or the University of International and Public Affairs School (SIPA).
• Amending its anti -discriminatory policies to include the definition of anti -Semitism used by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.
• Name the coordinators to respond to anti -Semitism allegations, and a new administrator to serve as a connection with the students and advise “the means to improve and support Jewish students”.
• Provide additional university level training on anti -Semitism.
• Reaffirming the zero tolerance policy of Columbia for discrimination and harassment.

Restore frozen funds

The Trump administration had frozen or put on hold “the majority” of its $ 1.3 billion in federal funding, said Shipman. “With the agreement,” she noted, “our access to billions of dollars in federal research funding will resume.”

The regulations reestablish the payments on the research subsidies that the government had frozen, as well as certain contracts that the government had dismissed (those of the National Institutes of Health and the Ministry of Health and Social Services, but not from the Department of Education and other government agencies). And this makes Columbia again eligible for future grants, contracts and awards.

“Not only will this resolution restore Columbia’s ability to fully participate in his longtime federal research partnerships,” said Shipman, “but this will also ensure critical continuity for teachers, students and staff of all disciplines”.

Freedom

Shipman argued that the agreement preserves the academic independence of Columbia. “The federal government will not dictate what we teach, who teaches, nor what students we admit,” she said.

Not everyone agreed with this evaluation.

“This announcement is a devastating blow to academic freedom and freedom of expression in Columbia,” said Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of University Professors.

Admissions and hiring

The regulations indicate that the government will have no authority over “the hiring of the faculty, university hiring, admission decisions or the content of the academic discourse”.

But Columbia accepted some of the government’s requests. The university will not use “race, color, sex or national origin” in the hiring of decisions “in all schools, departments and programs”.

The university has promised to maintain its merit admission policies and promised not to “prefer candidates for illegally based on breed, color or national origin of admission”.

Dei

Columbia has agreed to “do not maintain programs that promote illegal efforts to achieve results based on breed, quotas, diversity targets or similar efforts” and to comply with existing anti -discrimination laws.

Compliance

The agreement establishes arbitration procedures in the event of a dispute and creates an independent “resolution instructor”. This process, said Shipman, “demands that the government go through a very specific and prescribed set of steps if he believes that we do not compete with the terms of the agreement”.