White House touts deal with Columbia as critics decry ‘chilling’ precedent

The Trump administration hailed its deal with Columbia University as a victory and a template for agreements with other institutions on Thursday, even as concerns mounted that the settlement represents an unprecedented intervention by the government in the inner workings of higher education.

Under the terms of the deal, announced late Wednesday, Columbia will pay more than $200 million to settle claims over antisemitism and discriminatory hiring. In return, the government will unfreeze more than $1 billion in federal grants and funding to the university.

It represents a dramatic new stage of President Donald Trump’s aggressive effort to exert control over some of the nation’s most prestigious college campuses, cracking down on anti-Jewish bias as well as diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and demanding a shift away from a liberal worldview.

The agreement, months in the making, came as the elite Ivy League institution in New York City had grown increasingly concerned about its ability to maintain some of its research operations in the face of the funding freezes. It stipulates that the government will not have authority to dictate Columbia’s admissions decisions, hiring or the content of academic speech — a key provision for the school, which had sought to retain academic freedom amid intense federal pressure.

Claire Shipman, Columbia’s acting president, said in a statement that the agreement would “end a period of considerable institutional uncertainty” while ensuring that the government “will not dictate what we teach, who teaches, or which students we admit.”

Education Secretary Linda McMahon told NewsNation that the agreement was “an incredible win” that she hoped would be “a template for other universities around the country.”

But the leader of the largest national association representing institutions of higher education said what while Columbia had concluded the agreement was in its best interests, the deal sets a “chilling” precedent.

“Columbia was put in an untenable position by the outrageous actions of the executive branch of the government,” said Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education. The Trump administration, he added, “reached a conclusion before an investigation and levied a penalty without affording Columbia due process.”

Dozens of colleges and universities that are also facing or threatened with investigations by the Trump administration were working on Thursday to understand the deal’s ramifications. Some schools have engaged in talks with the administration to varying extents, while Harvard University has sued the government, alleging its attempts to force changes at the institution by withholding federal grants are illegal and unconstitutional.

Among the institutions currently negotiating with the Trump administration are the University of Michigan, Duke University and Cornell University. Those schools are in talks with the White House about its concerns and are in “early mutual agreement to find middle ground,” said one person familiar with the negotiations who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to describe sensitive matters.

A spokeswoman for Cornell declined to comment. Spokespeople for Duke and Michigan did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.

“What we’re witnessing here is the emergence of a new model for regulating universities by the government,” said David Pozen, a professor at Columbia Law School.

It’s “regulation by deal,” Pozen said, in which the Trump administration attempts to set higher education policy through one-off, bilateral agreements with universities that it specifically targets. He called it “an extraordinarily coercive and arbitrary way to set policy … Everyone in higher education should be worried about the manner in which this deal was constructed.”

The Trump administration will likely use the agreement to seek similar concessions from other universities in exchange for federal funding, experts said. Higher education lawyers and advocates said some institutions could begin implementing steps like those in the Columbia agreement without being asked by the Trump administration in order to avoid the government’s scrutiny.

“It’s all pretty shocking,” said higher education attorney Sarah Hartley, a partner at the Washington-based law firm BCLP. “It’s going to create a fear that could ultimately lead institutions to make more proactive changes than they might otherwise want to make.”

The agreement goes far beyond the administration’s original focus on alleged discrimination against Jewish students and faculty, Hartley said, setting a potential precedent on issues such as international student enrollment, requirements for single-sex housing and women’s sports participation.

The largest chunk of the settlement money — $200 million — will go directly to the U.S. Treasury, senior administration officials told reporters on Thursday, speaking on the condition of anonymity in accordance with the ground rules for the call. Exactly how the funds will be appropriated is not known yet, they said, but suggested that funding for trade schools and apprenticeships is a policy priority.

Columbia will pay a further $21 million to Jewish faculty and staff members to settle investigations brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Administration officials called it the largest such settlement ever for victims of antisemitism, and the largest in almost 20 years for any form of discrimination or harassment.

Those funds will be distributed to Jewish professors and other staff, administration officials said, including janitors who were trapped in a university building when it was taken over by pro-Palestinian protesters in the spring of 2024.

Under the terms of the agreement, a mutually agreed-to outside monitor will have authority to oversee the university’s compliance and have access to extensive data about university admissions and hiring to assure that racial preferences are not being used.

The person chosen for the role is Bart M. Schwartz, 78, a former federal prosecutor who has taken on several high-profile monitoring jobs in the past, including cases involving the New York City Housing Authority and General Motors, according to a biography on his company’s website and news coverage of his work.

Schwartz did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Thursday.

He is founder and chairman of Guidepost Solutions, an investigations, compliance and security firm that has backed some Jewish causes. In June, the firm sponsored a cocktail reception for the UJA-Federation of New York.

“As a steadfast sponsor, Guidepost Solutions proudly supports the UJA-Federation of New York and it’s work to help Israel heal and rebuild, confront antisemitism, and combat food insecurity and poverty in New York,” the company said on its website.

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• Emily Davies contributed.