Shortly after Columbia University made broad concessions to the Trump administration, the school’s acting president Claire Shipman struck a triumphant tone.

“Columbia retains control over its academic and operational decisions,” Shipman wrote in a July 24 email to the entire university community.

In an interview with the campus newspaper, she said the topic of disciplinary action had not even come up in negotiations with the Trump administration.

The claim struck critics of the university’s recent actions as odd on its face. The school had agreed to pay a $200 million fine and make significant changes to its academic operations, disciplinary proceedings, and oversight — including giving the Trump administration access to vast swaths of previously private university documents and data.

Critics of the deal with the Trump administration also noted that Shipman’s claim — that disciplinary action wasn’t discussed — was far-fetched. The announcement of the deal came on the heels of the suspensions and expulsions of almost 80 students who had participated in a sit-in and protest in Butler Library on May 7 — in a newly formulated disciplinary process that hewed closely to government demands.

A review by The Intercept of correspondence between the Trump administration and Columbia, the conditions and clauses of their final agreement, dozens of university records, and details of disciplinary proceedings related to pro-Palestine protests point to a different story.

What Independence?

Not only did Columbia and the Trump administration have detailed exchanges about altering the university’s disciplinary proceedings — especially in how they impacted protesters — but new rules regarding disciplinary procedures were also imposed on the university by its powerful board of trustees in a manner explicitly outlined by the Trump administration. (Columbia did not respond to a request for comment.)

Though Shipman said Columbia’s academic independence was the school’s “north star” during the negotiations, the private research university has made several concessions on academic functioning in its agreement with the federal government. And Shipman said that Columbia retains control over its operational decisions, yet the deal with the Trump administration includes clauses such as one in which the university has agreed to “examine its business model and take steps to decrease financial dependence on international student enrollment.”

MORE CONDITIONS of Columbia’s complete surrender to the Trump administration:

Targeted review of programs pertaining to the Middle East – As per the agreement, Columbia will undertake a “thorough review” of practically everything related to Middle East studies at the university,… pic.twitter.com/vykm5F65HP

A key element of the agreement was the appointment of a third-party “Resolution Monitor” to oversee compliance.

“We really preferred that it be an independent monitor as somebody we know and have vetted and who is nonpolitical, and so that we have a regular path to showing we’re in compliance with the agreement,” Shipman told Columbia’s campus newspaper.

The man selected for the role, Bart Schwartz, is the co-founder of Guidepost Solutions, which sponsored an event in June 2025 “helping Israel heal and rebuild.” He was selected in a joint decision by the university and government officials.

On top of it all, the school paid a massive $200 million fine — roughly half of the federal grants that had been frozen, which the university was seeking to recoup in the negotiations.

“It seems,” Joseph Slaughter, an English and comparative literature professor and the director of the Institute for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia, told The Intercept, “they paid off an extortionist and they hope that the extortionists won’t come back.”

Retrofitting Disciplinary Process

As the protests and crackdown continued, changes in disciplinary procedures at the university came in lockstep with Trump administration demands. In some cases, they were done quietly in response to developments at the university.

As students swarmed a study room at Butler Library in May, the school’s website listed one set of disciplinary procedures. The........

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