Pro-Israel activists and pro-Palestine campaigners alike took issue with the school’s $200 million capitulation
Columbia University’s decision to comply with Trump administration demands in exchange for federal funding has caused shockwaves, with many voices on both sides of the issue expressing anger and frustration.
In its agreement, Columbia will pay $220 million in legal fees to the Trump administration, along with implementing several policy changes regarding speech and student protections on campus. Following this, they will receive $400 million in withheld federal funds.
Some critics of the decision argue that it will affect the independence of the university and will effectively silence pro-Palestinian speech. Others say the decision does not go far enough in protecting Jewish students on campus.
David Hozen, a law professor at Columbia, criticized the reforms, calling them “as unprincipled as they are unprecedented” and arguing that the deal was a “legal form to an extortion scheme.”
Elisha Baker, co-chair of the pro-Israel student group Aryeh, was also critical, writing to the Columbia University Spectator that the reported deal “would completely ignore the structural and cultural reforms we need and effectively tell the world of higher education that discrimination is okay if they can afford it.
