An Ivy League school is apparently ceding now to President
Trump's demands to do more to combat anti-Semitism on campus
in an effort to keep hundreds of millions of dollars
in federal funding.
President Trump has threatened to withhold the money from Columbia
University because of those pro Palestinian protests that started there
last spring and spread to campuses across the country.
It's an issue that Trump highlighted on the campaign trail
last year.
Our Alex Preshe joins me now from Washington with more.
Alex, the Trump administration ought to make an example out
of Columbia University over those Palestinian protests last year.
What's the latest from the school?
Well, he's certainly making an example of Columbia University also
going after Cornell, but specifically Columbia by targeting federal funds
there, some $400 million that the administration cancelled and contracts
and, and also a grant because of what the administration
has said a, an unsafe environment for many of the,
the, the Jewish students on campus.
And they also listed 9 things in a letter to
the university that they wanted address, chief among them for
protests to not be allowed or protesters not to be
allowed to have those face coverings.
And so we're seeing Columbia respond now in an attempt
to keep some of that federal funding, they have outlined
a, a, a list of things that they're using that
they're changing and they call it advancing our work to
combat discrimination, harassment and anti-Semitism at Columbia University.
They did in fact, ban those face coverings at protest,
something that was big for the Trump administration.
They were also levying tighter controls on their Middle East
studies department.
And then another point here is, is that they're requiring
protesters to give identification, student identification, when asked for it
by safety officers.