Trump’s Columbia funding pauses academic union lawsuit

Two education unions sued the Trump administration for receiving $400 million in federal funds from Columbia University, saying the move was an illegal attempt to restrict academic independence and freedom of speech on campus.

The lawsuit filed by the American Association of University Professors and the American Federation of Teachers in New York on Tuesday was because Columbia itself has been in talks with the government to restore funds. The Ivy League University has agreed to expand campus police powers and ban protests wearing masks, among other measures.

The union said in the complaint that Colombia’s concessions to the government showed that the government “has a huge financial leverage to academic freedom in the case of illegal exercise of this leverage, highlighting the threat to academic freedom.” They asked the judge to announce the government’s termination of federal funding on March 7 and subsequent demands for schools.

The lawsuit is the latest lawsuit in the Trump administration’s attempt to crack down on Colombia after a series of protests erupted on campus since the October 1023 attack on Israel in October 2023. The government accused the university of failing to force anti-Semitism on campus, citing complaints from Jewish students since the Hamas attacks violated federal anti-discrimination laws.

Columbia University undergraduate student joins in a lawsuit against President Donald Trump and other officials allegedly attempted to revoke her status as a permanent U.S. resident for participating in campus protests against Gaza. Former graduate student Mahmoud Khalil is also a green card holder and is currently battling detention and potential deportation due to his campus activism.

“Repressed climate”

The Justice Department, which will represent the government, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Colombia did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The American Federation of Teachers has more than 1.8 million members, including faculty and staff from kindergarten to university-level schools. The American Association of University Professors represents approximately 44,000 faculty and academic professionals at universities nationwide, including Columbia.

The union of university professors filed a separate lawsuit Tuesday in federal court in Massachusetts asking judges to block the government’s policy of arresting, detaining and deporting non-citizen students and faculty participating in the Pro-Palestinian protests.

The union said this “creates an atmosphere of depression and fear on university campuses”, and students and faculty reduce the chances of commenting or attending classroom discussions. Some people have removed past work from online databases and websites.

In addition to banning mask bans and authorizing campus police powers, Colombia agreed to appoint a senior vice provost to oversee the Ministry of Research in the East, South Asia and Africa and said it would change the recruitment process for its faculty.

“By revoking $400 million in grant funds and threatening to cancel more, the Trump administration is able to achieve what the First Amendment prohibits doing directly through financial pressure: punish protesters based on the views of protesters, regulate the enrollment process, and change the ideological makeup of teachers,” the teams said in a New York lawsuit in New York.

The case is the American Association of University Professors v. Bondy, 25-CV-2429, the U.S. District Court, the Southern District of New York, and the American Association of University Professors v. Rubio, Massachusetts District Court, U.S. District Court 25-cv-10685.

This article was generated from the Automation News Agency feed without the text being modified.