The Trump administration’s milestone settlement with Columbia promises to bring stability to a university embroiled in scrutiny.

Columbia University's agreement to pay more than $220 million to the U.S. government to resolve federal probes was not capitulation but a means to restore vital public funding, the university's acting president said on Thursday.

Education lawyers and advocates said Columbia’s deal with the White House was a potentially dangerous government intrusion into higher education.

Columbia University has just agreed to a massive $220 million settlement with the Trump administration after a fight that centred around rampant anti-Semitism on campus. The university has also agreed to a number of policy reforms,

The university agreed to a $221 million payout, tacitly conceding spurious right-wing conspiracy theories about higher education.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon hailed it as “monumental victory” and “ a template for other universities .” The agreement is indeed a template – but it’s a dangerous one, a blueprint for how the Trump administration and future administrations can strong-arm universities into advancing ideological agendas under the guise of civil rights enforcement.

Reactions ranged from fierce criticism to relief after the university reached a settlement over allegations that it failed to stop the harassment of Jewish students.

Columbia University agreed to pay $200 million to the federal government in order to resolve multiple federal agency investigations. The settlement will restore access to billions of dollars in federal research funding,

Columbia University struck a deal with the Trump administration to unfreeze hundreds of millions of dollars in research funding that was illegally blocked.

Columbia’s decision to settle is understandable, but it’s also evidence of how badly the Trump era has numbed the conscience of the American elite. To protect its funding, Columbia sacrificed its freedom.

Never in the history of our nation has a university so thoroughly bent to the will of an autocrat. All who care about higher education must stand up and fight back against this unprecedented continuing assault.