Overview

• Two labor unions representing Columbia faculty challenged a $400 million funding cut and sought to block interference with more than $5 billion in federal grants and contracts.
• U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil ruled individual professors cannot direct executive policy and must use an appropriate plaintiff or forum to recover withheld funds.
• Columbia regained its funding after agreeing to boost campus security and review its Middle Eastern, South Asian and African studies programs under administration demands.
• The decision came 12 days after the Department of Education threatened to revoke Columbia’s accreditation over alleged failures to protect Jewish students from harassment.
• Union leaders, including AAUP president Todd Wolfson, vowed to appeal the dismissal and criticized the administration’s use of funding threats as executive overreach.