Columbia caves to Trumps demands after $400M threat over campus antisemitism, will institute mask ban and more oversight

Columbia University has caved to the demands of the Trump administration to restore $400 million in federal funding that was yanked over antisemitism on campus, according to a report Friday.The Morningside Heights university — which had become the epicenter of violent anti-Israel protests — agreed to implement a mask ban and put new leadership in charge of reviewing curriculum for its Middle East, South Asian and African Studies department and Center for Palestine Studies, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a memo to the administration.The school will also empower 36 campus cops to arrest students.The Trump administration yanked roughly $400 million in grants and contracts from the elite school back on March 7 over its failure to stamp out antisemitism on its campus.It threatened, too, to claw back billions more over the Ivy League’s handling of anti-Israel protests.The threats only escalated last week when the administration released a list of nine demands that Trump officials called a “precondition” for receiving any future federal cash.Giving the university a Friday deadline to comply, Columbia was instructed to “enforce existing disciplinary policies” — namely by punishing those responsible for the violent takeover of Hamilton Hall in April 2024 that saw dozens of masked anti-Israel rioters smashing their way inside.“Meaningful discipline means expulsion or multi-year suspension,” the demand stated.Among the other changes the White House called for was a reorganization of discipline processes and abolishing its University Judicial Board, as well as placing the school’s Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies Department into “academic receivership.”Academic receiverships are a rare meant to fix a dysfunctional department by putting a professor or administrator outside the department in charge.A ban on masks — aside from those worn for religious and health reasons — was also on the list.

 “Since October 7, Jewish st...