Trump administration notches first big win in assault on higher education

Federal judge dismissed lawsuit brought by faculty groups over government cuts to Columbia University funding

The Trump administration scored its most significant legal victory in its sweeping effort to reshape American higher education when a federal judge on Monday dismissed a lawsuit brought by faculty groups over the government's cuts to Columbia University's federal funding.

The lawsuit concerned the Trump administration's cuts to $400m worth of federal funding to Columbia on the grounds it tolerated antisemitism during pro-Palestinian protests on campus. Columbia largely accepted the government's terms for restoring funding - in an agreement widely panned as a capitulation of its own academic freedom - several days before the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) sued the Trump administration over the cuts.