The Trump administration recently announced its intention to pull $400 million in federal funding from Columbia University. Details have yet to be provided, but it is anticipated that funding will be taken from multiple departments, including funds for ongoing scientific and medical research.

Nine other universities are also under investigation. Columbia, however, was the only university under investigation by three separate government agencies: the Departments of Justice, Education and Health and Human Services.

The ostensible justification for the withdrawal of funds is Columbia’s failure to adequately address antisemitism and to protect Jewish students and faculty in the wake of pro-Palestinian and pro-Hamas demonstrations on campus sparked by the Gaza War.

Already on Oct. 7, 2023 — the day of the Hamas massacres in southern Israel — Columbia’s campus was beset with chants of “From the river to sea.” Students and professors alike spoke out in praise of Hamas. Months of protests ensued. Columbia’s main quads were occupied, as was venerable Hamilton Hall, the site of student takeovers in the 1960s, protesting the Vietnam War. Commencement ceremonies in May 2024 were cancelled due to the protests. More recently, the library at Barnard College (a Columbia affiliate)

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