Columbia University has declared major concessions to Donald Trump, agreeing to a payout of $220 million in order to reinstate federal research funding following sanctions imposed by the White House.

According to the university, this settlement will be paid over a period of three years after funding was revoked due to the White House’s measures against antisemitism on campus, as revealed by the university on Wednesday.

It will also pay $21 million to settle investigations brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

‘This agreement represents a crucial step forward following a phase of prolonged federal examination and institutional instability,’ stated acting University President Claire Shipman.

Trump celebrated the decision in a lengthy post to Truth Social on Wednesday night. 

‘I am pleased to announce that the Trump Administration has reached a historic agreement with Columbia University. Columbia has agreed to pay a penalty of $200 Million Dollars to the United States Government for violating Federal Law, in addition to over $20 Million to their Jewish employees who were unlawfully targeted and harassed,’ he wrote. 

‘Columbia has also committed to ending their ridiculous DEI policies, admitting students based ONLY on MERIT, and protecting the Civil Liberties of their students on campus. Numerous other Higher Education Institutions that have hurt so many, and been so unfair and unjust, and have wrongly spent federal money, much of it from our government, are upcoming.’ 

‘It’s a great honor to have been involved, and I want to thank and congratulate Secretary Linda McMahon, and all those who worked with us on this important deal. I also want to thank and commend Columbia University for agreeing to do what is right. I look forward to watching them have a great future in our Country, maybe greater than ever before!’ 

The Trump administration pulled the funding, because of what it described as the university’s failure to squelch antisemitism on campus during the Israel-Hamas war that began in October 2023.

Columbia then 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 — which does not include an admission of wrongdoing — codifies those reforms while preserving the university’s autonomy, Shipman said.

The school had been threatened with the potential loss of billions of dollars in government support, including more than $400 million in grants cancelled earlier this year.

‘The settlement was carefully crafted to protect the values that define us and allow our essential research partnership with the federal government to get back on track,’ Shipman said. 

‘Importantly, it safeguards our independence, a critical condition for academic excellence and scholarly exploration, work that is vital to the public interest.’

As part of the deal, Columbia agreed to a series of changes previously announced in March, including reviewing its Middle East curriculum to make sure it was ‘comprehensive and balanced’ and appointing new faculty to its Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies. 

It also promised to end programs ‘that promote unlawful efforts to achieve race-based outcomes, quotes, diversity targets or similar efforts.’

The university will also have to issue a report to a monitor assuring that its programs ‘do not promote unlawful DEI goals.’

The pact comes after months of uncertainty and fraught negotiations at the more than 270-year-old university.

It was among the first targets of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian campus protests and on colleges that he asserts have allowed Jewish students be threatened and harassed.

Columbia’s own antisemitism task force found last summer that Jewish students had faced verbal abuse, ostracism and classroom humiliation during the spring 2024 demonstrations.

Other Jewish students took part in the protests, however, and protest leaders maintain they aren’t targeting Jews but rather criticizing the Israeli government and its war in Gaza.

Columbia’s leadership — a revolving door of three interim presidents in the last year — has declared that the campus climate needs to change.

Also in the settlement is an agreement to ask prospective international students ‘questions designed to elicit their reasons for wishing to study in the United States,’ and establishes processes to make sure all students are committed to ‘civil discourse.’

Even into 2025, it appears the university is failing to control the campus. 

Just two months ago, Columbia suspended dozens of students and barred alums and others who participated in anti-Israel protests inside the school´s main library.

Shocking videos posted online showed dozens of people wearing keffiyehs and masks banging drums in a sprawling room at the Butler Library and hanging signs.

They repeated anti-Israel slogans for nearly an hour and renamed the library ‘Basel al-Araj Popular University’ after a Palestinian militant whom Israel has accused of planning a large scale attack, according to the New York Times.

But when the raucous demonstrators tried to leave the library, they were blocked by  security guards at the Ivy League university unless they showed a proper school identification – leading to an hours-long standoff.

Now, the Ivy League institution in Manhattan placed more than 65 students on interim suspension and barred 33 others, including those from affiliated institutions such as Barnard College, from setting foot on campus, in what is seen as an attempt to gain favor with Donald Trump.

Interim suspension generally means that a student cannot come to campus, attend classes or participate in other university activities, according to Columbia’s website. 

The university declined to say how long the disciplinary measures would be in place, saying only that the decisions are pending further investigation.