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Columbia fined $221 million for ‘painful’ antisemitism on campus

Columbia University slapped with largest antisemitism-related penalty in U.S. history, including a $21 million fine for discrimination against Jewish employees.

By World Israel News Staff

Columbia University has agreed to pay a total of $221 million in fines — including $200 million for discriminatory practices and $21 million specifically for antisemitic discrimination against Jewish employees — in exchange for the restoration of federal grants and funding previously suspended by the Trump administration.

A White House official described the settlement as the largest antisemitism-related fine in U.S. history.

However, Columbia claimed that the agreement is not an admission of responsibility for antisemitism on its campus.

The school is set to pay the fines over the course of the next three years, with an independent monitor reviewing the implementation of the agreement every six months.

“The Trump Administration’s deal with Columbia University is a seismic shift in our nation’s fight to hold institutions that accept American taxpayer dollars accountable for antisemitic discrimination and harassment,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon told Fox News Digital.

“For decades, the American public has watched in horror as our elite campuses have been overrun by anti-Western teachings,” McMahon added, noting that this ideological shift had “fueled the outbreak of violent antisemitism that paralyzed campuses after the October 7th massacre, something previously unthinkable in the United States of America.”

In a statement, Columbia said the agreement would restore its “access to billions of dollars in current and future grants.”

The school stressed that while “it does not admit to wrongdoing with this resolution agreement, the institution’s leaders have recognized, repeatedly, that Jewish students and faculty have experienced painful, unacceptable incidents, and that reform was and is needed.”

The Trump administration suspended some $400 million in federal funding earmarked for Columbia after chaotic anti-Israel protests roiled the campus, which began shortly after the October 7th Hamas massacres.

Jewish and Israeli students and staff were physically attacked, harassed, and threatened on campus by masked protesters — many of whom were not students enrolled at the school.

On Wednesday, Columbia announced that it had expelled, suspended, and revoked academic degrees from some 80 students who participated in the anti-Israel demonstrations.