Well, well, well—look who suddenly cares about fighting antisemitism. Columbia University, after months of letting pro-Palestinian protesters run wild on campus, is now pledging to make combating antisemitism its “number one priority.” And what prompted this sudden change of heart?
Oh, just the small matter of losing $400 million in federal funding.
That’s right—Columbia’s leadership, led by interim president Katrina Armstrong, is scrambling after the Trump administration cut off a massive amount of federal grants and contracts due to the university’s “continued inaction” in the face of rampant harassment against Jewish students.
The Department of Justice, Department of Education, and other agencies made it clear: Columbia ignored warnings, failed to respond to a federal review, and is now paying the price. And this? This is only the first round of action. More funding cuts could be on the way.
Now, let’s not pretend this was some noble, introspective moment for Columbia’s leadership. Armstrong, in an email to students and faculty, admitted that the funding loss will impact “nearly every corner of the University”—research, student programs, faculty support, and even patient care. That’s what’s driving this sudden urgency—not moral clarity, but sheer financial panic.
But Armstrong did make one revealing admission. She acknowledged that Columbia’s disciplinary process “previously only existed on paper.” In other words, the university knew it had a problem, but for the past year, it let things spiral out of control—culminating in an environment where Jewish students were openly harassed and a student like Khymani James could declare “Zionists don’t deserve to live” and only then get banned from campus.
This isn’t some isolated incident, either. Columbia was the epicenter of pro-Palestinian protests that swept through more than 30 universities nationwide.
The chaos was so bad that the school had to cancel its main commencement ceremony—an unprecedented move for an Ivy League institution. And when things really got out of hand? Then-president Minouche Shafik had to call in the NYPD to break up an encampment and make arrests.
Of course, by that time, the damage was done—Shafik resigned just a few months later, and now Armstrong is left trying to clean up the mess.
So, where does Columbia go from here? Armstrong is now talking about “a unified Columbia” and “acknowledging past failures.” But the reality is that Columbia’s reputation is severely damaged. The university ignored antisemitism until it cost them something. That’s not leadership—that’s damage control.
