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The government has demanded drastic changes to the university before it will consider reinstating $400 million. Lee C. Bollinger, the school’s former president calls it an “existential threat.”
March 17, 2025Updated 7:49 a.m. ET
When President Trump issued an ultimatum to Columbia University — canceling $400 million in funding and demanding an overhaul of its admissions and disciplinary rules — it launched the institution into an extraordinary crisis.
According to legal scholars, it may have also violated the law and the Constitution.
“Never has the government brought such leverage against an institution of higher education,” said Lee C. Bollinger, the former president of Columbia University, who stepped down in 2023 after a 21-year tenure. “The university is in an incredibly unprecedented and dangerous situation. It is an existential threat.”
The Trump administration has accused Columbia of failing to protect students and faculty from “antisemitic violence and harassment,” particularly in the months since the war in Gaza ignited a pro-Palestinian protest movement on campus, which then spread across the country. The government has said its demands are intended to protect Jewish students from discrimination.
Columbia thus far has publicly responded with caution and deference. The university is “committed to working with the federal government to address their legitimate concerns,” Columbia’s interim president, Dr. Katrina Armstrong, wrote in a letter to the university community.
The response has concerned some legal scholars because they believe the government has drastically overstepped its authority.
“It is puzzling that they have not filed a lawsuit that they would be extremely likely to prevail in,” said Leah Litman, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School.
