The changes Columbia University announced in response to the Trump administration’s demands that the campus address reports of antisemitism appear to have appeased the federal government, according to remarks by Education Secretary Linda McMahon in a CNN interview with Dana Bash Sunday.
Earlier this month the federal government froze $400 million in grants and contracts, which officials said was in retaliation for not addressing antisemitism at Columbia. While an ongoing Title VI investigation has not been completed, Columbia has acknowledged antisemitism on campus.
On Friday, Columbia acquiesced to most of Trump’s demands, agreeing to overhaul its disciplinary processes, enact a mask ban at protests, add three dozen police officers with the authority to make arrests on campus and tap a new senior vice provost to oversee academic programs focused on the Middle East, among other changes.
The concessions go further than the Trump administration had requested.
“Are you satisfied with that response? Will the freeze be lifted?” Bash asked in the interview.
McMahon said she had productive conversations with Columbia interim president Katrina Armstrong, who “wanted to address any systemic issues” and has worked hard to do so.
“We’ve talked and I believe that we are on the right track that we can now move forward,” McMahon answered.
When pressed, however, McMahon stopped short of promising the $400 million would be restored, telling CNN, “We are on the right track” toward “final negotiations” to unfreeze funds.
The interview did not address whether the federal government had legal authority to impose such sweeping changes on Columbia, which numerous legal scholars have expressed doubts about.
The Departments of Education and Health and Human Services and the U.S. General Services Administration sent out a joint statement Monday reaffirming McMahon’s comments.
“Instead of inspiring universal condemnation, the October 7 holocaust triggered a global wave of anti-Semitism,” said HHS secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “Ivy League campuses became a greenhouse for poison. President Trump has ordered his cabinet to use every constitutional tool to uproot this divisive weed. I’m glad Columbia has agreed to this first step and will begin to restore itself as a garden of tolerance, reason, compassion, and respect.”
