Columbia University agrees to pay more than $220m as settlement to Trump administrationColumbia University announced on Wednesday that it has signed an agreement with the U S government to pay $200m to settle multiple investigations into alleged violations of federal anti-discrimination laws.
The university also agreed to pay a further $21m “to settle investigations brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission”.
In return for the massive payments, to be made over three years, “a vast majority of the federal grants which were terminated or paused in March 2025 – will be reinstated and Columbia’s access to billions of dollars in current and future grants will be restored”, according to the university.
The agreement was signed by the university trustees and three Trump administration cabinet members: Pam Bondi, the attorney general, Linda MacMahon, the education secretary, and Robert F Kennedy Jr, the health secretary.
The settlement comes after Columbia already gave in to many of the Trump administration’s demands, agreeing last week to adopt a controversial definition of antisemitism that precludes criticism of Israel and expelling or suspending over 70 students who briefly occupied a campus library reading room in May to protest the Israeli assault on Palestinians in Gaza.
On Monday, Harvard University argued in federal court that the Trump administration’s decision to cut $2.6bn in funding from that university, over similar claims, was an illegal, politically motivated attempt to pressure the school into adopting policies on student conduct, admissions, antisemitism and diversity more in line with the president’s own views.