Columbia University Appears To Change Its Tune After Trump Slashes $400 Million In Federal Grants

Columbia University says it will prioritize fighting antisemitism on campus just after the federal government canceled federal funding worth about $400 million, according to reports.

The New York-based university’s interim president Katrina Armstrong told the university community Friday evening via email that it would work with the Trump administration to address the problem of antisemitism, the Columbia Spectator reported.

“Antisemitism, violence, discrimination, harassment, and other behaviors that violate our values or disrupt teaching, learning, or research are antithetical to our mission,” Armstrong wrote. “We must continue to work to address any instances of these unacceptable behaviors on our campus. We must work every day to do better.”

“To that end, Columbia can, and will, continue to take serious action toward combatting antisemitism on our campus. This is our number one priority,” Armstrong wrote.

The Department of Justice, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Education, and the U.S. General Services Administration canceled the massive federal grants and contracts to Columbia University Friday in “the first round of action” against the university, citing “continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.” More cancelations could follow, the agencies jointly said.

The federal Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism had informed Armstrong March 3 that it was reviewing Columbia’s federal funding amid investigations into possible civil rights violations but added that “Columbia has not responded to the Task Force,” hence the cancelation of funding.

The funding cuts would “touch nearly every corner of the University” and have caused “anxiety and concern for our entire community,” Armstrong wrote. (RELATED: Trump Hacks Away At Taxpayer Funding For Ivy League School With Pro-Terrorist Protester Problem)

“There is no question that the cancellation of these funds will immediately impact research and other critical functions of the University, impacting students, faculty, staff, research, and patient care,” Armstrong told the university community.

Nevertheless, the university’s “mission as a great research university does not waver,” she added.

Armstrong said when she became interim president in August 2024, she “knew Columbia needed a reset from the previous year and the chaos of encampments and protests on our campus” and “needed to acknowledge and repair the damage to our Jewish students, who were targeted, harassed, and made to feel unsafe or unwelcome on our campus last spring,” FOX News reported.

Armstrong also tellingly admitted that Columbia University’s disciplinary process “previously only existed on paper,” in an apparent swipe at erstwhile Columbia President Minouche Shafik, according to FOX News. Shafik resigned August 14, 2024 after just one year at the helm.

“The only way we can achieve that goal is to look honestly and deeply at not just our achievements, but at our failures and shortcomings, and ask ourselves how we can do better,” Armstrong wrote, according to the Columbia Spectator.

Armstrong called for “a unified Columbia, one that remains focused on our mission and our values.”

Columbia University was the epicenter of pro-Palestine protests that gripped over 30 U.S. universities. The protests followed the Oct. 7, 2023 lightning terror attack by Gaza’s Hamas on Israel that precipitated Israel’s devastating “Operation Swords of Iron” response against Hamas and the resignation of the Palestinian government.

Khymani James, a Columbia University student, earned a ban from the campus for saying in part that “Zionists don’t deserve to live.”

The protests were so disruptive the Ivy League university canceled its main commencement ceremony.

The New York City Police Department (NYPD) entered the Columbia University campus at the request of Shafik, cleared a protest encampment, and made several arrests.