Universities Columbia to pay $220m to Trump government

Columbia University announced a much-anticipated deal with the Trump administration to pay more than $220m, an agreement meant to bring a resolution to the threat of massive funding cuts to the school, but certain to rankle critics given the extraordinary concessions made by the Ivy League university.

- Alice Speri Cecilia Nowell

Under the agreement, the school will pay a $200m (£162m) settlement over three years to the federal government, the university said. It will also pay $21m to settle investigations brought by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

"This agreement marks an important step forward after a period of sustained federal scrutiny and institutional uncertainty," said acting university president Claire Shipman.

The administration pulled the funding because of what it described as the university's failure to suppress antisemitism on campus during the Israel-Gaza war that began in 2023.

Columbia first agreed to a series of demands laid out by the Republican administration, including overhauling the university's student disciplinary process and adopting a new definition of antisemitism. Wednesday's agreement codifies those reforms, Shipman said.

On Tuesday, the university announced that it had disciplined more than 70 students for participating in a May protest against the war in Gaza.