Trump administration issues nine demands to Columbia University to restore federal funding

The Trump administration has issued nine demands to Columbia University before it will discuss lifting the cancellation of $400m in federal funding, according to a letter sent to the university's interim president, Katrina Armstrong.

According to the letter, the Trump administration has demanded the university adopt the controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which academics and members of the Jewish community criticised as conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism.

The university was also told to begin the process of placing Columbia's world-renowned Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies department under academic receivership. This process requires an outside chair, who could be appointed by the government, to run the department for five years. 

Other demands listed by the White House include a mask ban on campus, giving "full law enforcement authority" to campus security by allowing them to "arrest and remove agitators", and reforming the admissions process for its undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.  

The Trump administration also ordered Columbia University to enforce its existing disciplinary policies, abolish its University Judicial Board, which includes student and staff representatives, and centralise its powers under the university president. 

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