Columbia University lays off around 180 staff after Trump administration revokes grants: 10 points

New York's Columbia University said it will cut around 180 staff members following the Donald Trump administration's announcement in March that it canceled $400 million in federal grants over the Ivy League school’s "failure to protect Jewish students from antisemitic harassment." Nearly 180 researchers working under now-terminated federal grants at Columbia University will soon receive “notices of non-renewal or termination, officials said.

Here are the key points you need to know in the story:
-Columbia University will lay off 180 staff members whose positions were previously funded by federal grants that have since been revoked by the Trump administration, acting president Claire Shipman announced on Tuesday, reported Newsweek.

-"Across the research portfolio we have had to make difficult choices and unfortunately, today, nearly 180 of our colleagues who have been working, in whole or in part, on impacted federal grants, will receive notices of non-renewal or termination," acting Columbia University President Claire Shipman said in a statement.

-"This represents about 20% of the individuals who are funded in some manner by the terminated grants. "In the coming weeks and months, we will need to continue to take actions that preserve our financial flexibility and allow us to invest in areas that drive us forward," she added.

ALSO READ: 'No Kings' mass protests planned in US to counter Trump's birthday military parade: Key points

-"This is a deeply challenging time across all higher education, and we are attempting to navigate through tremendous ambiguity with precision, which will be imperfect at times."

-Columbia University has been one of the institutions criticized by Trump. Earlier this year, the Ivy League school agreed to comply with certain demands from his administration, including implementing a ban on identity-concealing masks and hiring 36 campus security officers empowered to remove individuals from campus or make arrests when necessary.

-The Trump administration previously canceled $400 million in federal grants and contracts to the Ivy League school over what it called a failure to protect students from antisemitism. The campus was the scene of pro-Palestinian protests last year.

ALSO READ: Trump announces new national holidays. Will Americans have to work on those days?

-The university is continuing discussions with the federal government to resume "activity on these research awards and additional other awards that have remained active, but unpaid," the university wrote in a letter led by Acting President Claire Shipman.

-Others, such as Harvard University, have said they will continue to fight the Trump administration despite threats to cuts that could affect research funding.

-Shipman said the cuts represented about 20% of the individuals who are funded in part by the terminated grants. “We have had to make deliberate, considered decisions about the allocation of our financial resources. Those decisions also impact our greatest resource, our people. We understand this news will be hard.”