The Trump administration is immediately pulling $400m (£310m) of federal funding from Columbia University, saying it failed to fight antisemitism on campus.
A statement by four federal agencies said the funding cut was due to “continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students”.
The New York college was the epicentre of pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses last year against war in Gaza and US support for Israel.
Earlier this week, President Trump had threatened to pull funding from schools and universities that allow “illegal protests”.
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in Friday’s statement that Jewish students on campus who had been the victims of “relentless violence, intimidation, and antisemitic harassment on their campuses” were “ignored” by university authorities.
“Today, we demonstrate to Columbia and other universities that we will not tolerate their appalling inaction any longer,” she said.
A spokesman for Columbia told the BBC that the university is reviewing the announcement, and pledged to work with the government to restore its federal funding.
“We take Columbia’s legal obligations seriously and understand how serious this announcement is and are committed to combating antisemitism and ensuring the safety and well-being of our students, faculty and staff,” she said.
Columbia is one of the most prestigious universities in the US and has about 30,000 students. Its famous Morningside Heights campus is on the west side of Manhattan.
Last year, the Ivy League university saw some of the largest and most tense campus demonstrations in the US as students protested against Israel’s military operation in Gaza.
The Israeli military launched its campaign against Hamas in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack into Israel on 7 October 2023, which left about 1,200 people dead and 251 taken hostage.
Some 48,440 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military action, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
A ceasefire deal was reached in January, but looks increasingly fragile after the first phase expired recently.
A campus-wide email sent out by Columbia interim president Katrina Armstrong on Friday described a “time of great risk to our university”, according to the New York Times.
“There is no question that the cancellation of these funds will immediately impact research and other critical functions of the University, impacting students, faculty, staff, research, and patient care,” she wrote.
In the 2024 fiscal year, federal funding accounted for $1.3bn of the university’s annual operating revenue, according to the Columbia Daily Spectator student newspaper.
The decision to pull aid from Columbia was criticised by New York Civil Liberties Union director Donna Lieberman, who called it an illegal move “to coerce colleges and universities into censoring student speech and advocacy that isn’t Maga-approved, like criticising Israel or supporting Palestinian rights”.
Last April, the pro-Palestinian protesters took over a building on campus known as Hamilton Hall, renaming it ‘Hind’s Hall’ – in honour of a five-year-old girl, Hind Rajab, who was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza in January 2024.
The protests led to the resignation of Columbia University President Minouche Shafik in August, making her the third president of an Ivy League university to step down over their handling of Gaza war protests.
One student member of a Jewish campus group told the Associated Press news agency that he welcomed the move to punish Columbia.
Brian Cohen said he hoped it would be “a wake-up call to Columbia’s administration and trustees to take antisemitism and the harassment of Jewish students and faculty seriously”.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators continued protesting at Columbia recently.
On Friday, the university confirmed that four students were arrested for a “disruption” on Wednesday at Barnard College – a separate institution affiliated to Columbia – adding they had been “suspended and restricted from campus”.