US seeks consent decree on Columbia over protests, WSJ reports

(Reuters) -The Trump administration is working to force Columbia University into a consent decree that would legally bind the school to follow federal guidelines in how it combats antisemitism, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

The newspaper, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, reported that the potential consent decree is part of the administration's negotiations with the university over freeing up $400 million in federal funding that has been blocked.

Columbia University said in an emailed statement that it "remains in active dialogue with the Federal Government to restore its critical research funding."

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Justice Department declined to comment.

Any consent decree with Columbia could last for years and would give a federal judge oversight powers for ensuring that the school adheres to any agreements it meets with the federal government on how it addresses antisemitism, the Journal said.

President Donald Trump's administration has targeted several universities that it contends have failed to adequately address antisemitism and intimidation of Jewish students during pro-Palestinian protests on campus last year, mainly by freezing federal funding for schools.

The protests were in response to Israel's invasion of Gaza following the deadly Hamas attack carried out inside Israel in October 2023.

The Trump administration is also working to carry out deportations and cancel the visas of foreign students who took part in the protests. Mahmoud Khalil, a foreign student who was a leader of the demonstrations at Columbia, is in federal custody and fighting his deportation in the courts.

Columbia was at the epicenter of the nationwide pro-Palestinian student protest movement, and has drawn criticism from both Democratic and Republican politicians, donors and some students and faculty.

Columbia has made several concessions so that it can negotiate to regain the funding, drawing harsh criticism that it had quickly caved to government pressure and not stood firm on academic freedom and free speech. Among the actions the school said it had already taken was adding 36 new campus patrol officers with the power to arrest.

(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Colorado; Editing by Frank McGurty, Bill Berkrot and Deepa Babington)