New York City-based Columbia University’s board of trustees met to discuss the terms of a potential agreement with the Trump administration to restore at least part of the institution’s federal funding, said people familiar with the matter.
According to two of the sources, recent versions of a potential agreement between the university and the administration have not included a consent decree, The Wall Street Journal has reported.
The government task force initially aimed to place the university under a consent decree as a way to ensure the university complied with federal guidelines related to combating antisemitism on campus, which would have assigned a federal judge to oversee Columbia’s compliance.
More recent discussions, however, have considered appointing a monitor or external observer with less authority than a federal judge, the newspaper added.
People familiar with the negotiations say the terms being discussed include restoring at least a portion of Columbia’s federal funding, but the exact details are still being finalised, and the deal could still fall through.
For months, the Ivy League university has been engaged in a standoff with the Trump administration over the fate of its federal funding and institutional autonomy.
‘We must maintain our autonomy’
In March, the administration revoked $400 million in federal grants and contracts, claiming Columbia’s failure to protect Jewish students from anti-Semitic harassment following pro-Palestinian protests on campus.
In May, a government investigation concluded that Columbia had violated its students’ civil rights and issued a formal notice of violation to the university. This step can precede either a Justice Department lawsuit seeking a consent decree or a voluntary resolution agreement with the school.
Previously, the university agreed to an earlier set of demands from the Trump administration, such as restricting the use of masks during protests, granting campus police expanded authority to arrest students and appointing a senior vice provost with broad oversight of the Department of Middle East, South Asian and African Studies.
However, these concessions merely initiated formal negotiations and did not lead to the restoration of the university’s federal funding.
A Columbia spokesperson declined to comment on the latest negotiations but referenced a June 12 statement from acting President Claire Shipman, who emphasised the importance of restoring the university’s research partnership with the government.
“Our red lines remain the same,” Shipman said, adding that "we must maintain our autonomy and independent governance. We decide who teaches at our institution, what they teach and which students we admit.”
