Health and Human Services is cutting at least $73 million in funding from Columbia University in an effort that the Trump administration claims is aimed at ending health research focused on equity, part of a slate of cancelled grants to dozens of academic institutions.
Roughly 150 grants to the university are on the chopping block, with reductions ranging in value from as little as 50 cents to upwards of $7 million, according to a list released by the administration. The grants include funding aimed at reducing racial disparities in health outcomes and broader research on diseases like HIV, cancer and Alzheimer’s. The Morningside Heights-based university is by far the biggest target of the equity-related cuts, which amount to a total of at least $105 million across multiple institutions, the list shows.
The cuts, part of a wider dragnet aimed at any research perceived by the Trump administration to focus on racial and gender equality, are the latest examples of the White House’s use of vast federal funding streams to target diversity initiatives.
Many of the cut programs are focused on reducing health disparities, particularly among Black communities, where life expectancy is significantly shorter and chronic disease rates are higher than in White communities nationwide. It is widely accepted, based on abundant evidence, that those disparities are the result of systemic inequality and a history of divestment and discrimination in health care.
The largest cut is a $7.5 million grant to the university’s Community Center, a consortium of New York institutions targeting the systemic and social determinants that contribute to the gulf in chronic disease rates. The areas served by the program are two-thirds non-White and one-third foreign-born, according to its website. A fifth of their residents live below the federal poverty line.
The gutted studies are wide ranging. They include, for example, a $6 million program aimed at studying the biomarkers associated with radiation exposure and a $1.3 million cut to research aimed at reducing HIV and Hepatitis C outbreaks in opioid users.
The cuts are the latest federal attack on the university, which has come into the sights of President Donald Trump perhaps more than any other private institution over its handling of student protests against the war in Gaza. On March 7, the administration issued a statement saying it was pulling $400 million in grants and contracts to the university in response to what it called Columbia’s “inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.” The university has sent notices to multiple students accusing them of harassment in recent weeks, including Jewish students who participated in the protests. Two teachers unions have sued the Trump administration over the cuts, which they say trample on Constitutional free speech protections, while Columbia University has taken steps to meet White House demands in order to restore the funding.
It is unclear whether the newly-listed cuts are part of the $400 million in cancelled grants, which were announced weeks earlier. The more recently announced cuts appear to conform with a January executive order targeting so-called “diversity, equity, and inclusion” initiatives and followed shortly after a panel of appellate judges lifted a pause on it earlier this month.
The university is in the process of reviewing federal notices and could not confirm how many grant cancellations had been received since the March 7 announcement, said spokeswoman Millie Wert. The university declined to comment further.
Will Powell, acting press secretary for the U.S. General Services Administration, the federal government’s central procurement agency, referred inquiries to Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health, which administer the grants. Those agencies did not respond to a request for comment.
