Researchers in limbo as Columbia bows to Trump’s demands in bid to restore US$400M federal funding

Dani Dumitriu talks to reporters at her office in New York, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

NEW YORK — When U.S. President Donald Trump canceled US$400 million in funding to Columbia University over its handling of student protests against Israel’s war in Gaza, much of the financial pain fell on researchers a train ride away from the school’s campus, working on things like curing cancer and studying COVID-19’s impact on children.

The urgency of salvaging ongoing research projects at the university’s labs and world-renowned medical center was one factor in Columbia’s decision last week to bow to the Republican administration’s unprecedented demands for changes in university policy as a condition of getting funding restored.

The Ivy League university announced Friday that it would overhaul its student disciplinary process, ban protesters from wearing masks, bar demonstrations from academic buildings, adopt a new definition of antisemitism and put its Middle Eastern studies program under the supervision of a vice provost who would have a say over curriculum and hiring.

The university’s decision to accede to nearly all of the Trump administration’s demands outraged some faculty members, who say Columbia has sacrificed academic freedom. The American Association of University Professors and the American Federation of Teachers, representing members of Columbia’s faculty, filed a lawsuit Tuesday saying the funding revocation violated free speech laws.

Scientific and medical researchers are appalled that their work was drawn into the debate to begin with.

“There’s simply no justifiable link for the federal government to put this kind of research in the line of fire for the goal of mitigating antisemitism at a different location,” Dr. Dani Dumitriu, a pediatric researcher studying babies born during the COVID-19 pandemic, said from her office in midtown Manhattan.

Dr. Andrew Lassman, a brain cancer specialist and associate director of clinical trials at Columbia’s cancer center, said researchers will have to make difficult decisions if the cuts stand. Those choices could include prioritizing which experimental cancer treatments they will focus on and how many patients they can treat, he said.

“This is real, not theoretical research,” said Lassman, who works at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, located about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) north of the university’s main campus. “Young, old, Black white, Republican, Democrat — cancer doesn’t care.”

U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the university was “ on the right track ” after it announced the changes Friday, but hasn’t indicated yet whether funding might be restored.

Columbia’s interim president, Katrina Armstrong, on Tuesday characterized the school’s policy changes as “ right for Columbia.”

“Implementation of these measures is fundamental to sustaining our academic mission without disruption and ensuring the safety of Columbia’s students and campuses,” she said in a statement, adding that she was committed to restoring the partnership between the university and the federal government.

On Columbia’s main campus, Benjamin Bostick, an environmental scientist whose research on rural water quality in Arizona, Oklahoma and the Dakotas was among those that lost funding, expressed dismay at the university’s decision to agree to the Trump administration’s demands.

He said the school was put into a position where it couldn’t do much to fight back. “But I really dislike that it effectively divides the institution and diverts attention from the fact that research activities are being suspended by external powers,” Bostick said.

“From my perspective, what the government is telling me is that they don’t care about people who have these issues or how to address them,” he said, referring to the water quality research.

At Columbia’s Teachers College, the cuts hit a program that trains graduate students to become teachers for the deaf and hard of hearing. Elaine Smolen, the program’s co-director, said the Department of Education grant provided students with tuition support, living expenses and professional development.

“There’s no arguing with the extreme shortage and need for the kind of work that we do,” she said. “The longer deaf or hard of hearing children wait for services, the worse their outcomes are.”

At Dumitriu’s office, the funding cuts have forced her team to stop conducting and analyzing brain scans on participants in the study, which sought to track the long-term health of children whose mothers contracted COVID-19 while they were pregnant.

“We were learning so much, and we were hoping to continue to follow up with these babies all the way into their adulthood,” she said.

Casandra Almonte, a New Jersey mom participating in the study with her son, said pulling funding “makes no sense at all.”

She said the extra testing and periodic check-ins with Dumitriu’s team gave her peace of mind that her son Oliver, now age 2, was developing properly.

“It’s completely unfair to pull funding from science because people are practicing free speech,” Almonte said.

For now, Dumitriu says much of her team’s work can continue using other funding, as the National Institutes of Health grant suspended by the Trump administration represented roughly a quarter of its budget. She hopes to appeal the decision while her office seeks other grants.

“We are kind of living moment to moment,” Dumitriu said. “It’s a really rough time to want to do good.”

Philip Marcelo, The Associated Press