Protesters rally in support of detained Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil outside Columbia University in New York on Friday, March 14, 2025.
Jason DeCrow/AP
The Trump administration delivered an ultimatum to leaders of Columbia University on Thursday, threatening to end a portion of its federal funding unless the school implements strong controls over an international studies department and makes significant changes to student discipline standards and other university policies.
In a letter obtained by NPR dated March 13, federal officials from the U.S. Education Department, Department of Health and Human Services and General Services Administration demanded Columbia place its Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies Department under “academic receivership for a minimum of five years,” requiring them to create a full plan to do so by March 20. The letter didn’t explain why this department was targeted for an academic receivership, an unusual move in which the control of a program is placed in the hands of university administration.
Representatives from the Education Department, HHS and GSA didn’t respond to NPR’s questionsabout the letter’s demands.
A Columbia University spokesman said in an email to NPR that school officials are reviewing the letter. He added, “We are committed at all times to advancing our mission, supporting our students, and addressing all forms of discrimination and hatred on our campus.”
Leaders of Columbia’s Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
It’s been a tumultuous week at Columbia as the Trump administration appears to have set its sights on the university. His administration has already canceled $400 million in federal grants and contracts to the school, claiming that Columbia failed to police antisemitism on campus in the wake of pro-Palestinian demonstrations last spring. And the high-profile arrest of a former student involved in those protests continues to keep the school in the public eye.
Columbia is not the only university to face heightened scrutiny from the Trump administration recently: 52 universities are now under investigation as part of the president’s effort to rid institutions of efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion.
This conflict over federal funding at Columbia is the latest flashpoint in a year full of controversy and discord at the university. Here’s a rundown on the recent developments.
Using a tactical vehicle, New York City police enter an upper floor of Hamilton Hall on the Columbia University campus in New York, April 30, 2024, after the building was taken over by protesters earlier in the day.
Craig Ruttle/AP
The Trump administration demands mask bans and new disciplinary rules
Much of the turmoil at Columbia began last spring after university leadership clashed with pro-Palestinian protests on campus, sparked by the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas. Columbia students, for their part, established encampments on school grounds and took over a university building as they called on university leaders to divest from companies with ties to Israel. Then-president Nemat Shafik stepped down over the summer after facing criticism for calling in police to break up the demonstrations; she’d also been grilled in Congressional hearings related to antisemitism on campus.
Nearly a year later, the university continues to face fallout from the protests. In its recent letter, Trump administration officials claim that Columbia “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.”
It continues, “U.S. taxpayers invest enormously in U.S. 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.”
The letter also demands that Columbia expel or levy multi-year suspensions for students who participated in demonstrations and encampments last spring. Federal officials are also demanding the school establish a new, formal antisemitism definition and policy; reform undergraduate admissions, international recruiting, and graduate admissions practices “to conform with federal law and policy” (though it didn’t specify which laws or policy); and to grant Columbia security officers“full law enforcement authority.”
The university also must ban masks on campus meant to hide the wearer’s identity “or intimidate others,” with an exception for religious and health reasons, the letter says. It also says that Columbia must closely scrutinize student groups that may be “operating as constituent members of, or providing support for, unrecognized groups engaged in violations of University policy” and hold those organizations accountable if in violation.
Even after last week’s $400 million cuts, the government has said Columbia holds more than $5 billion in federal grant commitments. The Associated Press reports that last week’s cuts have already affected research studies at Columbia’s medical center, which relies on grants from the National Institutes of Health.
Protesters rally in support of detained Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil outside Columbia University in New York on Friday, March 14, 2025.
Jason DeCrow/AP
The Trump administration continues to call these protests, which are largely peaceful, antisemitic. Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a coalition of student groups that organized the pro-Palestinian protests, include Jewish students and groups among its organizers and participants.
Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street, a Jewish and pro-Israel advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., called the the Trump administration’s targeting of higher education part of “an all-out assault on the norms of our democracy and against the very existence of critical institutions, programs and services across all sectors of our society.”
By taking this step, and justifying it as protecting Jewish students, the Trump administration is abusing real fears of Jewish Americans about rising antisemitism, Ben-Ami said in a press release.
“That is why it is so painful to see the very real fears of Jewish Americans about rising antisemitism being abused by the Trump Administration to advance a nefarious agenda that undercuts key pillars of the Jewish experience – from civil rights to immigration and higher education,” Ben-Ami said.
The New York Civil Liberties Union said the students’ actions are “protected political speech.”
When last week’s funding cuts were first announced, the group’s executive director Donna Lieberman said in a statement, “This move is the latest escalation by the Trump administration to coerce colleges and universities into censoring student speech and advocacy that isn’t MAGA-approved, like criticizing Israel or supporting Palestinian rights.”
Immigration agents called in, days after former student Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest
On Thursday night, immigration agents from the Department of Homeland Security searched two student residences at Columbia. They left without making any arrests or seizing any evidence, Gothamist, an NPR affiliate, reported.
Katrina Armstrong, Columbia’s interim president, wrote in a message to the school communityconfirming that the officers served the university with two warrants “to enter non-public areas of the University and conduct searches of two student rooms.”
“Columbia continues to make every effort to ensure that our campus, students, faculty, and staff are safe,” she wrote. “Columbia is committed to upholding the law, and we expect city, state, and federal agencies to do the same.
Khalil was one of the Columbia students who negotiated on behalf of the campus protesters who were pressing the school to divest from Israel last spring.
President Trump has long criticized pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses. Within days of taking office, he signed an executive order calling on the Department of Justice to “investigate and punish anti-Jewish racism in leftist, anti-American colleges and universities.”
The Trump administration has accused Khalil of leading “activities aligned to” the terrorist group Hamas. However, Khalil has not been charged with any crime.
Civil rights groups and attorneys representing Khalil have lambasted the Trump administration for the arrest.
“This is a clear attempt by President Trump to make an example out of Mr. Khalil and silence dissent across the country. No matter what your views are on Israel & Palestine, we should all be terrified of a government incarcerating its residents for their political opinions,” Brett Max Kaufman, senior staff attorney with ACLU’s Center for Democracy, said in a statement.
