Cornell University agreed to conduct “annual surveys to evaluate the campus climate for students, including the climate for students with shared Jewish ancestry” as part of an agreement it reached with the Trump administration on Friday. 

The settlement will restore more than $250 million in federal funding that was cut from the Ivy League school earlier this year, over allegations that it failed to address campus antisemitism. The annual surveys will “ask students whether they feel welcome at Cornell; whether they feel safe reporting antisemitism at Cornell; and whether they believe the changes Cornell has made since October 2023 have benefited the Cornell community.” 

The federal government concluded that Cornell is not in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and has closed the relevant investigations.

“I am pleased that our good faith discussions with the White House, Department of Justice, and Department of Education have concluded with an agreement that acknowledges the government’s commitment to enforce existing anti-discrimination law, while protecting our academic freedom and institutional independence,” Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff told Jewish Insider on Friday. “These discussions have now yielded a result that will enable us to return to our teaching and research in restored partnership with federal agencies.”

Under the terms of the settlement, in which Cornell agreed to pay $60 million — half to the government and the other $30 million toward research that will support U.S. farmers — the university must also ensure it is in compliance with government civil rights laws and provide admissions data to the government to ensure race is not considered a factor in admissions. 

The settlement includes a provision stating that the university and government both “affirm the importance of and their support for academic freedom.” It also said that no part of the settlement could be “construed as giving the United States authority to dictate the content of academic speech or curricula.”

Menachem Rosensaft, an adjunct professor of law at Cornell Law School who teaches about antisemitism in the courts, called the settlement a “significant victory for Cornell.”

“It is proof that the Cornell administration under President Kotlikoff has in fact been doing — and is doing — everything in its power, and everything that is appropriate within the restraints posed by academic freedom, to protect its Jewish students, faculty and staff against any type of antisemitic discrimination, just as it is protecting all members of the Cornell community from Title VI or Title IX based discrimination,” Rosensaft told JI. 

“Of course there remains work to be done to fight against antisemitic manifestations at Cornell, just as there is at virtually every university and college in this country. But the settlement is proof that Kotlikoff and his administration are fully invested and engaged in this fight.”

The six-page agreement comes weeks after a similar one was signed by the University of Virginia; however, the Charlottesville campus’ settlement did not explicitly address Jewish students. Columbia University, Brown University and the University of Pennsylvania also cut deals with the government earlier this year. The Trump administration is still reportedly in talks to reach agreements with Harvard University and the University of California. 

The move from Cornell comes as its graduate student union is considering a BDS resolution that accuses Jewish students of “weaponizing antisemitism” and blames labor disputes on “Zionist interests” — where, unlike many other unions, dues are mandatory.

In the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks in Israel, Cornell made headlines for several high-profile incidents. Those included a student’s online threats to shoot Jewish students at the kosher dining hall — and, following a leave of absence, the return to campus earlier this year of Russell Rickford, an associate professor of history who called Oct. 7 “exhilarating” and “energizing.”

Cornell’s former president, Martha Pollack, issued a set of recommendations aimed at countering antisemitism in May 2024. Pollack resigned in July 2024, citing “enormous, unexpected challenges” on campus amid the Israel-Hamas war. 

As Israeli students departed from Harvard University last month to begin summer break, the usual sense of relief and excitement at having completed another academic year was replaced by fear and uncertainty for many.

Amid the Trump administration’s battle with Harvard — which recently escalated to stripping the university of its ability to enroll foreign students entirely — “see you in the fall” was replaced with  “I hope to see you in the fall” among international students exchanging goodbyes. 

Harvard currently hosts more than 10,000 international students, according to university data. 160 of them are from Israel. On May 22, the White House issued a policy directive meant to completely cut off the university’s ability to admit international students, the first instance of the government doing so. A federal judge has since temporarily blocked President Donald Trump from implementing the policy, although the matter will work its way through the courts. If the White House is successful, international students must transfer schools or lose their visa. 

Jewish students and faculty who conduct biomedical research at Harvard also face grim prospects, after Trump revoked billions of dollars in federal funds to the university. 

“Jewish faculty may have grants, as well, that are being cut or canceled,” said Dr. Richard Schwartzstein, a professor at Harvard Medical School who has worked to raise awareness about antisemitism in medicine, and to incorporate lessons on antisemitism into the school’s anti-racism curriculum. “That has been disconcerting for everyone, because most of us don’t believe that biomedical research has much to do with the issues that the Trump administration seems to be concerned about. It seems to be merely used as a punishment.” 

Rabbi Jason Rubenstein, executive director of Harvard Hillel, told Jewish Insider that “morale is low” among Jewish students planning a career in scientific and medical research, and among Jewish students from abroad.  

“Those are major parts of the Harvard Jewish community, and they are really suffering and concerned about their future,” said Rubenstein. 

At the same time, many Jewish students on campus expressed relief that the antisemitism and anti-Israel activism that was all too common in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks had declined significantly in the previous school year. 

Last year, for instance, hundreds of students and faculty members walked out of the school’s main commencement ceremony in solidarity with 13 anti-Israel student protesters who were denied degrees as a result of their involvement in the school’s illegal encampment that spring.

But last week, Harvard’s 374th Commencement appeared to run smoothly, with just a few subdued reminders of the campus chaos that has been wrought by Israel’s war with Hamas. 

Harvard’s president, Alan Garber — booed at last year’s ceremony over his decision to not allow the demonstrators to graduate — received a standing ovation this year. A banner reading “There Are No Universities Left in Gaza” was briefly unfurled on the steps of the main library before being confiscated by campus police, the Harvard Crimson reported. Another, reading “Harvard Divest From Genocide in Gaza,” was dropped from a window of Sever Hall and taken down minutes later.

Alex Friedman, who just finished his second year at Harvard Law School, said he left Cambridge last month feeling “cautiously optimistic” about the direction in which the university is moving.

“Harvard is moving very quickly and aggressively to eliminate certain sources of anti-Israel bias on campus,” said Jesse Fried, a law school professor at Harvard. “If the Trump administration were not breathing down their neck, I believe progress would have been much slower.” 

“There’s no question that campus was definitely quieter this year than in the previous year. That year was extraordinary, the outburst of antisemitism and anti-Israel activity on campus,” Friedman told JI last week. “The magnitude and consistency were definitely not the same. That, of course, doesn’t mean that the underlying issues have been solved. Antisemitism at Harvard has been a problem for decades, and it’s not going away overnight.”

Jesse Fried, a law school professor at Harvard, attributed to the change to a combination of “natural loss of energy” as students got bored of the topic, and “students’ sense that, ‘Okay, I could get into trouble.’” 

Changes on campus were implemented at the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year, when Joe Biden was still president, Fried said, noting that Harvard’s progress in addressing antisemitism and students’ anti-Israel bias was not only a result of pressure from Trump. But once Trump came into office and began threatening Harvard — and then implementing policies that directly targeted the Ivy League university — change happened more quickly, Fried observed.

“Harvard is moving very quickly and aggressively to eliminate certain sources of anti-Israel bias on campus,” Fried said. “If the Trump administration were not breathing down their neck, I believe progress would have been much slower.” 

Last month, under pressure from Trump, Harvard released a long-delayed report on campus antisemitism, which found that the university had “severe problems” in its handling of the issue. In March, before any funding had been revoked, Harvard paused a controversial partnership with a Palestinian university and let go leaders of its Center for Middle Eastern Studies. 

Harvard’s Jewish community is “split” on how Trump is handling the problem, Fried said, although Trump’s revocation of federal research funding and his threat to bar international students from the university have upset many in the Jewish community. 

“There might be some people who are supportive of what Trump is doing, because they see it as a necessary evil: ‘You have to do this in order to fix Harvard,’” said Fried. “But most of the Jewish community is appalled by what he’s doing and the tactics he’s using.”

Rubenstein echoed that the Jewish community has mixed reactions to Trump’s crackdowns. “Federal engagement has been helpful when it’s focused, measured and proportionate,” he said. “The threat of federal funding cuts was important in facilitating different actions throughout the university. For example, Harvard’s counsel was explicit that it wanted to settle the Title VI [of the Civil Rights Act of 1964] lawsuits before Trump’s inauguration.” 

Before the government’s actions against Harvard escalated, aspects of the crackdown appeared to address antisemitism that had been pervasive on campus even before the Oct. 7 attacks, according to Rubenstein. 

“Every time there’s an action taken by the Trump administration, an immediate email is sent discussing how Harvard will respond and offering support to students,” said Alex Friedman, who just finished his second year at Harvard Law School. “People are focusing on, ‘Oh, Harvard’s doing great. They’re really standing up,’ and understandably so. But this also shows that Harvard could have done that 18 months ago, after Oct. 7, when they were faced with what was happening on campus and what they were facing in the world, and yet they chose not to.” 

“I’ve heard from faculty that they always felt Harvard has been one settlement away from the antisemitism policy we wanted,” Rubenstein said, “so they are grateful for the settlement [in January] which led to the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism” as part of a resolution to two Title VI lawsuits. 

Even as Harvard has made progress in tackling antisemitism, the university’s blundering response in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks still stings for many Jewish Harvard affiliates, particularly when viewed in comparison to the urgency with which Harvard has responded to Trump’s policies. 

“Every time there’s an action taken by the Trump administration, an immediate email is sent discussing how Harvard will respond and offering support to students,” said Friedman, the Harvard Law student. “People are focusing on, ‘Oh, Harvard’s doing great. They’re really standing up,’ and understandably so. But this also shows that Harvard could have done that 18 months ago, after Oct. 7, when they were faced with what was happening on campus and what they were facing in the world, and yet they chose not to.” 

Looking ahead to the fall, Jewish leaders at Harvard expressed hope that their focus can return to strengthening Jewish life.

Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi, who leads the campus Chabad, said he intends to stay away from the “politics of the moment” and instead “focus on building and nurturing Jewish life and community … [which] we expect to continue to grow from strength-to-strength.” 

Rubenstein expects “the disproportionate focus on Israel will really dissipate on campus when there’s peace in Israel, the hostages are returned, please God, and Hamas is no longer a threat in the Gaza Strip.”

Still, he predicts “several years of work and ongoing vigilance from the Jewish community, as antisemitism is ascendant in many corners where we didn’t used to think we had to combat it.”

And campus Jewish leaders are cautiously optimistic that the work won’t fall as heavily on them. 

“What we hear consistently from Jewish students is by far the most important thing for their experience of being Jewish in college is the vibrancy of their Jewish community — the Shabbat dinners, friendship, trust, song, laughter. That need is not going anywhere,” Rubenstein said. 

“That need is only growing, and in many ways we’ve lost track of it over the past year as we’ve turned attention to governance of the university, faculty politics and disciplinary procedures,” he continued. “That’s important, but our community needs to recommit to resources for the lives of Jewish students.” 

Jewish student leaders from the City University of New York shared firsthand accounts of campus antisemitism with Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) and New York City Mayor Eric Adams at a roundtable inside City Hall on Monday. 

The meeting came as a result of several antisemitic incidents CUNY students have faced just weeks into the new academic year. Many of the students in attendance said that antisemitism is more intense on campus than it was last year. They shared that they were met with loud protests outside of a recent event intending to welcome new Jewish students to campus.

On Sep. 3, some CUNY Jewish students were followed to a kosher restaurant in midtown Manhattan, where pro-Palestinian student demonstrators blockaded the entrance and shouted threats at Jewish customers. 

Also this month, CUNY’s Baruch College tried to cancel an annual campus Rosh Hashanah celebration over safety concerns. Baruch’s president, Szu-yung David Wu, initially told students that he could not “guarantee their security.” The decision was later reversed on the condition that Hillel’s name would not be on the Sept. 26 event due to fears of anti-Israel protests. 

“We’ve been fighting for almost a year now with all of the antisemitism going on both on campus and in the city,” Maya Gavriel, a third-year student studying accounting at Baruch, told Jewish Insider at the event. “Being able to speak with leaders who can actually make change, and they’re listening to what’s happening, feels like I’m finally getting an opportunity to be proud about being Jewish. I’m under the impression that [Adams and Torres] care about wanting to give us the resources to make a change, but it will only come with time and a lot of pressure.” 

Gavriel noted that she’s particularly appreciative of Torres for meeting with Baruch Jewish students immediately after the Rosh Hashanah event cancellation. “He set up the meeting with Mayor Adams and the NYPD,” she said. “He listened and gave us resources and that’s how I know things are happening. That’s why we keep showing up to tell our stories and we’re not stopping this fight.” 

Students expressed that the NYPD did not move fast enough last year to break up demonstrations. 

Adams told the group of about a dozen students that “we need action from you guys to ask them to go onto campus.” 

“Our lawyers made it clear you don’t have the authority to go on those college campuses without the permission of the individuals of the schools, the presidents and the faculties,” the mayor said after listening to students’ concerns and experiences.  

“Whatever the law allows me to do, I am going to do it to ensure New Yorkers are safe,” Adams said. 

“Free expression is vital to a free society,” said Torres. “But there is a difference between free expression and harassment [and] intimidation. What we’re seeing in our colleges and universities is the creation of a hostile environment in violation of Title VI [of the Civil Rights Act of 1964].” 

Several Jewish members of Adams’ team also addressed students’ concerns at the roundtable, including Menashe Shapiro, deputy chief of staff and senior advisor to the mayor; Richie Taylor, deputy chief of the NYPD and Fabien Levy, deputy mayor for communications.