Columbia University’s grants and contracts with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Department of Education (ED), and the US General Services Administration (GSA) are set to be reviewed over ongoing concerns about antisemitic discrimination, the US government bodies announced in a joint Monday statement.
Due to Columbia’s alleged inaction against campus conditions for Jewish students and faculty and ongoing investigations into alleged civil rights violations, the Task Force to Combat Antisemitism is considering Stop Work Orders for $51.4 million in federal contracts and regulation compliance reviews for another $5 billion in federal grants.
No immediate action on the contracts is to be taken, but Education Secretary Linda McMahon said academic institutions that received federal funding had a responsibility to protect students from discrimination, and Columbia’s alleged failure to meet this expectation brought its fitness to do business with the government into question.
Harrassment of Jewish students
“Americans have watched in horror for more than a year now, as Jewish students have been assaulted and harassed on elite university campuses,” said McMahon in the statement. “Unlawful encampments and demonstrations have completely paralyzed day-to-day campus operations, depriving Jewish students of learning opportunities to which they are entitled.”
The GSA will be facilitating the review, according to Federal Acquisition Service Commissioner Josh Gruenbaum, who explained that the organization was committed to upholding federal acquisition standards and ensuring that government contracts reflected the nation’s values.
“We’ll be working across the government to end the culture of antisemitism in our institutions of higher education – putting all institutions on notice that it will not be tolerated per President [Donald] Trump’s executive order,” said Gruenbaum, referring to Trump’s January 29 order for executive agencies to submit reports of counter-antisemitism actions to address post-October 7 Massacre campus turmoil.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said, “Antisemitism – like racism – is a spiritual and moral malady that sickens societies and kills people with lethalities comparable to history’s most deadly plagues.
“In recent years, the censorship and false narratives of woke cancel culture have transformed our great universities into greenhouses for this deadly and virulent pestilence,” Kennedy said of the spread of antisemitism.
“Making America healthy means building communities of trust and mutual respect, based on speech freedom and open debate.”
Trump warned on Tuesday that federal funding would stop for any academic institution that allowed illegal protests.“Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came,” he wrote on Truth Social. “American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on the crime, arrested.”
The joint announcement by the HHS, ED, and GSA came just four days after the Federal Task Force to Combat AntiSemitism said it would visit 10 US campuses regarding antisemitic incidents since October 2023. Columbia was one of the institutions listed.
Columbia was at the epicenter of anti-Israel protests last academic year, serving as the progenitor of the campus encampment movement. The campus has seen steadily escalating protest actions since the semester began, with an Israel history class being disrupted and the occupation of a building belonging to affiliate Barnard College.