The federal government and Columbia University engaged in an 11-hour debate on Thursday about whether Ivy League schools will turn to President Trump's demands or risk $400 million in federal funds as deadlines pass.
“There was a productive conversation going on, there was an area of preconditions, which we needed to clarify and address for operation and implementation,” a source familiar with the ongoing negotiations told the Post.
“The federal government is uncertain about the preconditional requirement that even actual negotiations be held, and these assumptions must be met for federal satisfaction.”
Earlier this month, Trump warned elite universities that they would either comply with the list of requests, or lose hundreds of millions of grants and contracts, including banning masks across campus and meeting hard penalties for anti-Israel protesters on campus until March 20th.
What was asked was explicitly spelled in a March 13th letter It was sent to the university by a joint task force consisting of the General Services Bureau and the Education and Health Bureau.
He said compliance with the provisions was cited as a prerequisite for Colombia and the administration to resume “formal negotiations” about the future of schools' “continued fiscal relations with the US government.”
To comply with the demand, Manhattan schools must establish mask bans, integrate their authority to hand out suspensions or expulsions with university presidents, and impose “meaningful discipline” on those who participated in violent campus protests last spring.
A Columbia spokesperson declined to comment.
