On March 14, 2025, the Trump Administration sent a letter to Columbia University with a list of demands following the cancellation of $400 million in government grants and contracts that had been part of the university’s annual operating budget.
The letter states, “US taxpayers invest enormously in US colleges and universities, including Columbia University, and it is the responsibility of the federal government to ensure that all recipients are responsible stewards of federal funds. Columbia University, however, has fundamentally failed to protect American students and faculty from antisemitic violence and harassment in addition to other alleged violations of Title VI and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.”
With those words, the Trump Administration gave Columbia one week to comply with its demands. If met, the government said it would consider reinstating funding that the university relies on for operating its research and educational efforts.
What were the demands? They included admissions reform, empowering internal law enforcement, enforcement of disciplinary actions for acts committed at Hamilton Hall and encampments, dismantling the University Judicial Board and putting the President of the university in charge of the disciplinary process, the ban of the use of face masks when trying to hide identity during protests, formalize, adopt and promulgate a formal definition of antisemitism, and finally place the Middle East, South Asian and African Studies program under academic receivership for a 5-year period. Columbia had been planning and implementing these demands before the letter was issued, as have many colleges and universities in the US. Antisemitism has been on the rise on campuses since last year, with despicable instances of Jewish students being harassed, spit on, accused of genocide, interrupted access to classes and generally feeling unsafe on campus.
With the departure of three presidents from some of the world’s most prestigious universities last year, including Harvard, Columbia, and the University of Pennsylvania, there have been efforts to lower the political temperature on campuses in the US.
But one demand stood out from the rest: the demand for academic receivership of an entire academic department.
Shockwaves rippled through academia when Columbia conceded to all the demands of the Trump Administration. While Columbia has an endowment of nearly $15 billion, the $400 million in federal funding comprises approximately 20% of the university’s annual operating budget. The cancellation of these funds has been disastrous. University officials agreed to all the major demands, which they contended were already in their plans to address antisemitism and harassment on campus.
The university also appointed a new senior provost to oversee the Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies Department, which most academicians acknowledge is a form of academic receivership. The provost would be responsible for making changes to the curriculum and hiring current and future faculty members.
Those watching this story unfold initially wondered if Columbia would be a canary in the coal mine of academic freedoms. In the last few weeks since Columbia’s decision, the Trump Administration has identified over $12 billion in federal funding to be cut to some of the most prestigious universities in the country.
The University of Pennsylvania had its $275 million in federal funding canceled due to the government’s concern over a transgender woman competing on the women’s collegiate swim team.
Other universities affected by federal funding cuts include Harvard, Cornell, Brown, Northwestern, and Princeton. Harvard has outright rejected the demands of the Trump Administration, which recently froze $2 billion in funding. Chris Eisgruber, the president of Princeton, has come out against the demands made by the Trump Administration, along with Wesleyan University’s president, Michael Roth, who has criticized Trump’s unreasonable demands. Recently, Columbia has also pushed back, with acting President Claire Shipman going on record to state that the university would not agree to any demands that would compromise its independence and academic freedoms. The other universities are, for now, complying with the government’s requests.
To grasp the potential impact of freezing federal funds to institutions of higher education, one must consider what American universities have produced in the last few decades. A significant portion of Columbia’s $400 million in federal support goes to science and medical research. Researchers rely on those federal funds to carry out groundbreaking science and lifesaving medical research. Among Nobel Prize winners in the fields of physics, chemistry, and medicine over the last decade, 78% of the awards given were to research carried out in the United States, often at the same institutions now facing federal funding cuts.
Anti-Semitism, or any racial, gender, or religious political harassment, has no place on university campuses. There is much more work to be done on campuses to ensure this hate is finally cut out, and all students feel safe on campus.
But should academic freedoms be controlled by the federal government on university campuses?
The precedents currently being set for federal encroachment on university campuses may represent a slippery slope. Are other academic freedoms in play for the future? What if the federal government, conservative, centrist, or liberal at any given time in the future, differs in opinion on gender studies, climate studies, history studies, economics, art and any other discipline that is open to interpretation? Would universities have to comply with the changing political agendas of each new White House Administration?
Huge endowments that currently exist in universities are exempt from federal taxes, which allows them to grow in value significantly over time. What if tax exemption laws are changed by a federal government that is not satisfied with a university’s academic curriculum or faculty? Will those universities be able to survive financially if their endowments are in danger? Will the future of American universities include active federal oversight of any and all academic offerings?
The actions of the Trump Administration have established that federal funds, essential to the survival of universities, can now be used as a tool to control the academic freedoms of American universities. One thing is certain: we have most definitely entered uncharted academic waters.
