Overview

• The draft agreement would allow Columbia to recover most of the $400 million in grants and contracts frozen in March by paying more than $200 million to settle discrimination claims.
• It would require the university to publicly disclose detailed admissions and hiring data to demonstrate compliance with civil rights and Supreme Court affirmative action rulings.
• Earlier White House demands for a judicial consent decree and governance overhauls, including changes to the University Senate, have been dropped to preserve Columbia’s institutional autonomy.
• Negotiations have been led by President Trump adviser Stephen Miller’s White House team with Deputy Assistant May Mailman running point and Columbia represented by Kirkland & Ellis partners.
• Officials say the framework could serve as a template for other elite institutions such as Harvard and Cornell seeking to secure the return of their frozen federal research funding.