Columbia U. lays off 180 staff after government cuts aid

Some $400 million in federal grants was withdrawn over the alleged mishandling of antisemitism on campus.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Columbia University announced on Tuesday that it was forced to lay off 180 staff members after the government cut $400 million in federal grants over the school’s mishandling of antisemitism on campus.

An open letter by acting president Claire Shipman and other senior university officials said they were still having “discussions” with the government over reinstating its support of the school’s myriad research activities, “but the strain in the meantime, financially and on our research mission, is intense.”

As a result, 20% of those working on such federally funded projects received notices of termination or nonrenewal, the letter said, without specifying which departments would be affected.

The school is also taking the government to court.

Columbia’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors filed a federal lawsuit in late March against the government’s cuts, saying they are illegal.

Trump administration accused Columbia of “inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students” when it pulled the funding in March.

The university was the first to have massive anti-Israel demonstrations and set up tent encampments to demand divestment from the Jewish state after war was sparked in the Gaza Strip following the Hamas-led invasion on October 7, 2023.

Jewish students were consistently threatened and harassed, physically hurt, and blocked from entering the campus or class buildings, while the administration reportedly stood by instead of taking disciplinary measures over the clear violation of the school’s code of conduct.

The funding cuts were not reinstated although Columbia agreed to several of the administration’s demands. These included hiring security personnel who would have arrest powers, changing the disciplinary process, updating bias incident reporting and response capacity, and officially banning the wearing of face masks to avoid being identified during protests.

The school had inserted a loophole for masks worn “for religious or medical purposes,” and students wore masks in a subsequent demonstration against the school’s “caving” to the government, with no repercussions.

Columbia also said it would acquiesce to the appointment of an overseer for the Department of Middle East, South Asian, and African Studies and others whose faculties have stood out for presenting a biased view against Israel in their Middle East programs.

The supervisor will have a say in the hiring of new teachers and be permitted to review the curricula, which many critics say is an illegal overreach of government into the classroom.

anti-Israel activistsantisemitism on campusColumbia protestsColumbia Universityfederal funding