Trump Administration Cancels $400 Million in Grants and Contracts to Columbia
Move targets the Ivy League school over allegations of antisemitism
Updated March 7, 2025 The Wall Street Journal
The Trump administration is canceling roughly $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University, the government said Friday.
The Ivy League school has come under scrutiny by the Trump administration for an alleged failure to protect Jewish students. The grants in question are from the Department of Health and Human Services, the General Services Administration and the Education Department.
“Universities must comply with all federal antidiscrimination laws if they are going to receive federal funding,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement. “Columbia has abandoned that obligation to Jewish students studying on its campus.”
A Columbia spokesperson said the school is reviewing the agencies’ moves and pledged “to work with the federal government to restore Columbia’s federal funding,” adding that the school is “committed to combatting antisemitism and ensuring the safety and wellbeing of our students, faculty, and staff.”
A person with knowledge of the discussions said the university will have a 30-day review period to address the government’s concerns and potentially reinstate the contracts.
The administration was aiming to cut a much higher number of grants, worth billions of dollars altogether, but decided Friday to keep intact some National Institutes of Health grants to Columbia, a person familiar with the matter said. Columbia received more than $639 million in grants from the NIH, a division of HHS, in 2024, according to government data.
The administration announced a review of Columbia’s contracts and grants earlier this week. The agencies said at the time that they were considering stop-work orders for $51.4 million in contracts with Columbia and a “comprehensive review” of more than $5 billion in grant commitments to the school.
The Justice Department has said it is sending a task force to visit Columbia and a group of other universities that have dealt with antisemitism. Those schools had some of the biggest pro-Palestinian demonstrations that disrupted campuses last year and prompted rebukes from across the political spectrum.
Columbia drew especially heated criticism from some alumni for what they perceived as the university’s tepid response.
The protests led the school to move classes online in April. A month later Columbia canceled its main graduation ceremony, and in August, President Minouche Shafik resigned 13 months into the job.
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