New York (AP) – The Trump administration said on Friday that it is withdrawing $ 400 million from Colombia University, canceling the scholarships and contracts due to what the government describes as the failure of the Ivy League school to anti -Semitism on the campus.
The notification came five days after federal agencies announced that they are considering orders to stop working at $ 51 million in decades with New York City University and review its eligibility at more than $ 5 billion in federal scholarships to move forward. This came after Colombia has established a new disciplinary committee and intensified its own investigations into students who criticize Israel, which threatens the preachers of freedom of expression.
But it is clear that Colombia’s efforts did not go away enough for the federal government.
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“Universities must comply with all federal anti -discrimination laws if they will receive federal funding. The Minister of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement on Friday that Colombia had abandoned this commitment to Jewish students studying on its university campus.
She later published X that she would hold a “fruitful meeting” with the temporary president of the university, Katrina Armstrong, and expected “to work together to protect all students.”
Colombia has pledged to work with the government to try to recover money.
“We take the legal obligations of Colombia seriously and understand the severity of this declaration and are committed to combating anti -Semitism and ensuring the safety and welfare of our students, faculty and employees,” the university said in a statement.
It is not clear any research, projects or activities that will be affected in Colombia, which runs a medical center among many other jobs. The university said it was retreating the advertisement. An investigation was sent to the Ministry of Education, which issued a announcement on Friday, along with health and justice departments and the Public Services Department.
Although the details are not yet confirmed, the advertisement comes at a time when the leaders of research projects in Colombia are discovering their budgets for the next academic year, and they are “very concerned about what this means.”
Newton, a Jew, believes that government complaints depend on a “complete lie” about Colombia soaked in anti -Semitism and is indifferent to the reports of some Jewish students about facing hostility.
But the $ 400 million reduction was welcome to Colombia/Bernard Heil, a Jewish students. CEO Brian Cohen said he hoped to be “an invitation to wake up to the administration of Colombia and its secretaries to take anti -Semitism and harass Jewish students and faculty members seriously.”
The CEO of the Civil Liberties Union in New York, Donna Lieberman, described this step as a unconstitutional government effort “to coercion colleges and universities in controlling the student’s discourse and the invitation that did not agree to Maga, such as criticizing Israel or supporting Palestinian rights.” A message seeking a comment has been sent to a group of alliances of protesters supporting the Palestinians.
Colombia became the first goal in President Donald Trump’s campaign to reduce federal funds of colleges accused of tolerance with anti -Semitism in the midst of the Hamas war that started in October 2023.
The university was at the forefront of the campus protests last spring. The pro -Palestinian demonstrators established a camp in April and inspired a wave of similar protests. The demonstrators in Colombia continued to seize a building on the campus, which led to dozens of arrests when the police cleared the building.
Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress disturbed Colombia at the time Minoch Shavek about the university’s response to anti -Semitism. Shavik said it was “personally committed to doing everything I can face directly.” She resigned four months later.
A few weeks later, the university’s work group said that the Jews and Israelis at the school were rejected by the students’ groups, and they were insulted in the classroom and were subject to verbal abuse amid the spring demonstrations.
In recent days, a smaller group of demonstrators organized brief professions of buildings at the Barnard College, which has followed Colombia to protest against the expulsion of two students accused of disrupting the separation of Israeli history. Several students were arrested after an hour -long acquisition of a building on Wednesday.
Many people participating in the protests said that there is nothing hostile to Semitism about the criticism of Israel because of its actions in Gaza or the expression of solidarity with the Palestinians.
Some students, and a lawyer who advise them, sees the new disciplinary university holders as an attempt to calm the government by suppressing the pro -Palestinian discourse.
Colombia is among a handful of colleges that have undergone new anti -Semitic federal investigations. Among the others is the University of California, Berkeley; Minnesota University; Northwestern University; Portland State University.
