The Trump administration is threatening to cut $400 million in research funding at Columbia University unless the institution remedies its failure to comply with Title VI civil rights requirements to protect its Jewish students.
Columbia University is responding with threats of its own, saying that some beneficial projects in medical science will have to be shuttered if funds are cut.
Discontinuing important research efforts is a political choice, not a financial necessity, for an institution with nearly $5 billion in unrestricted endowment funds. Columbia is making this political decision because it hopes that those who value threatened research efforts will blame the Trump administration and apply pressure to reverse the announced funding cuts.
Rather than give in to these threats, the Trump administration should back an alternative for how beneficial projects could…
