Columbia lays off nearly 180 after Trump pulled US$400 million over antisemitism
A New York City police officer keeps watch on the campus of Columbia University in New York, Monday, May 6, 2024. (Photo: AP/Seth Wenig)
NEW YORK: Columbia University said Tuesday (May 6) that it will be laying off nearly 180 staffers in response to President Donald Trump's decision to cancel US$400 million in funding over the Manhattan college's handling of student protests against the war in Gaza.
Those receiving non-renewal or termination notices represent about 20 per cent of the employees funded in some manner by the terminated federal grants, the university said.
“We have had to make deliberate, considered decisions about the allocation of our financial resources,” the university said. “Those decisions also impact our greatest resource, our people. We understand this news will be hard.”
Officials are working with the Trump administration in the hopes of getting the funding restored, they said, but the university will still pull back spending because of uncertainty and strain on its budget.
Officials said the university will be scaling back research, with some departments winding down activities and others maintaining some level of research while pursuing alternate funding.
In March, the Trump administration pulled the funding over what it described as the Ivy League school’s failure to squelch antisemitism on campus during the Israel-Hamas war that began in October 2023.
Within weeks, Columbia capitulated to demands laid out by the Republican administration as a starting point for restoring the funding.
Among the requirements was overhauling the university's student disciplinary process, banning campus protesters from wearing masks, barring demonstrations from academic buildings, adopting a new definition of antisemitism and putting the Middle Eastern studies program under the supervision of a vice provost who would have a say over curriculum and hiring.
Columbia was at the forefront of US campus protests over the war last spring. Pro-Palestinian demonstrators set up an encampment and seized a campus building in April, leading to dozens of arrests and inspiring a wave of protests nationally.
Trump, when he retook the White House in January, moved swiftly to cut federal money to colleges and universities he viewed as too tolerant of antisemitism.
