US Education Secretary Linda McMahon warned the administration of Columbia University that the restoration of the $400 million in federal funding that was cut due to the university's failure to address the antisemitism crisis on its campuses was not guaranteed and depended on the fulfillment of Columbia's vows to take steps restore order to campus and protect Jewish students, the New York Post reported.
During a breakfast meeting with reporters today (Tuesday), McMahon was asked, “What happens if it emerges that Columbia is not meeting the demands and complying with the agreements that they said they would?”
“My answer is pretty simple," McMahon responded. “They have to abide and comply with the terms that we have set down and [we’ve] talked with them and they’ve agreed to."
“And that was kind of the basis to get them to the real first step of total negotiations to restore the funding — that, in and of itself, was not to reinstall, to reinstate the funding. So they’ll have to do that. And we certainly hope that, hope that they will, and I’ve had no indication from President Armstrong anything would be contrary to that," she added.
The Education Secretary's comments come as the Wall Street Journal reported that Columbia University interim president Katrina Armstrong assured faculty in private conversations that the university would not bar the wearing of masks at protests despite agreeing to do so in its agreement with the government. McMahon did not appear to be aware of the report.
On Friday, Armstrong announced a series of reforms at Columbia, including placing the university’s Middle East studies department under new oversight, revising protest and student discipline policies, and adopting a new definition of antisemitism.
As part of the agreement, Columbia is supposed to prohibit masks on campus, grant 36 campus police officers expanded authority to arrest students, and appoint a senior vice provost with broad oversight over the Department of Middle East, South Asian, and African Studies, as well as the Center for Palestine Studies.
The measures were a response to the Trump administration’s withdrawal of federal grants and contracts from Columbia, citing the university’s failure to protect Jewish students. The university had been at the center of pro-Palestinian Arab demonstrations that disrupted campuses across the country last year.
However, Armstrong told faculty over the weekend that “there was no mask ban" agreed to, according to the Journal report.