The conflict was about values, but, as is often the case in Donald Trump's transactional America, it will end in financial settlements. At a time usually devoted to preparing for the new academic year, major US universities have found themselves consumed by a very different agenda: negotiating the price for their survival with the White House. The stakes amount to hundreds of millions of dollars.

Columbia University, located in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, was the first to capitulate in this unequal battle, where the administration could, at will, freeze billions of dollars in funding, bar foreign students from getting visas and block access to scholarship programs. The university ultimately settled, agreeing on July 23 to pay $221 million over three years in order to reclaim $1.7 billion in various federal grants and funding. It also secured the termination of multiple investigations that threatened its operations.

In 2023 and 2024, Columbia experienced major protests in support of Gaza and was accused of allowing an antisemitic atmosphere to take hold. Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian student and leader of the protests, was arrested, held for several months by immigration authorities and now faces deportation despite being a green card holder and having no criminal charges filed against him.

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