Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday condemned Columbia University’s settlement with the Trump administration as “outrageous and embarrassing” and accused the school of giving in to the government’s pressure campaign against higher education.
“I am deeply disappointed by reports of Columbia University’s outrageous and embarrassing $200 million capitulation to the Trump Administration’s repugnant extortion campaign,” Nadler, a Columbia alumnus whose district borders the school, said in a statement on the social platform X.
“[M]y alma mater has allowed a once highly-respected institution to succumb to the Trump Administration’s coercive and exploitative tactics,” Nadler added. “Columbia has effectively waived the white flag of surrender in its battle at the heart of the Trump Administration’s war on higher education and academic freedom.”
The Trump administration and Columbia University on Monday announced a settlement, whereby the Ivy League institution agreed to pay $221 million to restore the more than $400 million in federal funding that was cut off by the administration.
In cutting off Columbia’s funding, the Trump administration originally cited alleged inaction on antisemitism, though Education Secretary Linda McMahon pointed to more ideological motives.
“This is a monumental victory for conservatives who wanted to do things on these elite campuses for a long time because we had such far left-leaning professors,” McMahon said on Fox Business Network.
The university, which saw some of the nation’s most active pro-Palestinian campus demonstrations amid the war in Gaza, did not have to admit to wrongdoing as part of the deal.
Nadler stressed the need for Columbia to do more to protect Jewish students on campus, but he said the latest settlement would do nothing to help those students.
“While Columbia needs to do a better job at protecting its students against antisemitism on campus, this disgraceful and humiliating action will not, in anyway, improve the situation on campus for Jewish students,” Nadler said.
“Columbia’s students, faculty, staff, and larger community deserve better than this cowardly decision,” he added.
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