Columbia University cuts 180 staffers funded by federal grants revoked by Trump administration
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Columbia Cuts 180 Staff After Trump Pulls $400M in Funding
Above: Columbia University campus in New York City on April 14, 2025. Image copyright: CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images
The Spin
Republican narrative
The funding cuts were necessary to protect Jewish students from harassment and discrimination on campus. Universities must face consequences for failing to maintain basic safety and civil rights protections for all students, and by targeting them where it hurts, the administration can make otherwise reluctant institutions act. In the case of Columbia, it has already succeeded in making the university combat anti-Semitism through concrete measures.
Democratic narrative
The Trump administration’s cuts to university funding mark a troubling intrusion into academic independence, threatening to undermine progress across fields from biomedical research to environmental science. The cuts are already causing significant disruption to research efforts, which, if sustained, could set scientific innovation back by decades, while setting a dangerous precedent of using federal funding to influence university policies and stifle free speech.