(The Center Square) — Education Secretary Linda McMahon said Columbia University is “on the right track” to recover $400 million in federal funding frozen by the Trump administration.
Speaking on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, McMahon said the Ivy League New York City university agreed to implement a host of policy changes sought by the Trump administration.
“We are on the right track now to make sure the final negotiations to unfreeze that money will be in place,” she said.
On Friday, Columbia’s Interim President, Katrina Armstrong, announced that the university would put its Middle East studies department under new supervision and update its rules on protests and student discipline.
The elite school also agreed to update its definition of antisemitism and expand its “diversity” by hiring new educators at its Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies, the university said in a statement.
Armstrong said the college would also create a “presidential commission” to review disciplinary policies “to ensure all members of the Columbia community are held accountable for actions that hinder the academic pursuit of any individual within the community.”
“The way Columbia and Columbians have been portrayed is hard to reckon with,” she wrote in a letter to faculty and students outlining the changes. “We have challenges, yes, but they do not define us. We are a community of scholars who have deep respect for each other and our mission. We teach the brightest, most creative students in the world, and we care deeply for each and every one of them.”
McMahon said she had a “great conversation” with Amstrong, who acknowledged her “responsibility to make sure that children on her campus were safe.”
“She wanted to make sure there was no discrimination of any kind,” McMahon told CNN. “She wanted to address any systemic issues that were identified relative to the antisemitism on campus.”
Earlier this month, the Trump administration pulled back $400 million in grants and contracts from Columbia, arguing that the school didn’t comply with anti-discrimination laws when it failed to protect Jewish students during last year’s often violent demonstrations.
Columbia was the scene of large-scale demonstrations last year by students and others who called for an end to the Israeli military’s war against Hamas in Gaza and a recognition of Palestinians’ territorial claims.
The Trump administration said the crackdown is part of its “mission to end antisemitism in this country” and foreshadows other investigations tied to “terrorist” activities on other college campuses.
