WASHINGTON – Columbia University just inked a deal with President Donald Trump that's unlike any other in the history of American higher education.
The 22-page agreement, meant to address accusations by Trump that Columbia has violated federal laws, is sweeping. Changes to admissions, academic departments, campus security and hiring are all hammered out in it.
In return, the deal eases the extraordinary pressure the school has faced since March. Hundreds of millions of dollars in research funding will begin flowing again. Other federal probes, including ones that jeopardized the school's access to financial aid, will cease.
For the first time, the accord sets a definitive price tag for a U.S. college to assuage the Trump administration, which has made no secret of its disdain for many universities, especially the richest and most selective ones.
For Columbia, the cost of mollifying Trump was steep. Claire Shipman, the university's president, agreed the school would pay a $200 million fine to resolve funding disputes, plus an additional $21 million designated for university employees who said they'd faced discrimination or harm amid campus protests related to the Israel-Hamas war.
