Columbia Gets What It Deserves. Cancer Research Doesn’t.

Columbia screwed up. No doubt about it.

They failed Jewish students. They let antisemitism fester on campus. They ignored it, minimized it, let it slide. Now the federal government is stepping in, and Columbia is finally facing consequences.

Good. They deserve it.

But gutting cancer research to make a point? That’s not accountability. That’s destruction.

Columbia University and Columbia Medical are not the same thing. The people developing AI-driven cancer detection? The teams working on next-gen screening technology? The researchers figuring out how to keep people alive? They had nothing to do with what happened on that campus. But their funding is gone.

The Trump administration just erased $400 million in grants. Not from the student groups spreading hate. Not from the administrators who turned a blind eye. From scientists. From doctors. From the people working on treatments that patients—real, living, desperate patients—are waiting for.

This is personal for me.

I’ve spent 30 years in cancer advocacy. I know what it takes to push for research, to get funding, to fight for the next breakthrough. I know how fragile progress is. How easy it is to kill momentum.

This is how you kill it.

Research doesn't happen in a vacuum. You rip out funding, and you don’t just slow things down—you stop them. Projects shut down. Jobs disappear. Promising leads go nowhere.

Patients lose.

Columbia needs to be punished for failing Jewish students. But this isn’t punishing Columbia. It’s punishing cancer patients.

You want to hold the university accountable? Do it.

But don’t destroy life-saving science in the process.

SOURCE: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/18/nyregion/columbia-research-grants-trump.html?unlocked_article_code=1.5U4.qVpQ.1KHg_zQBf4Iz&smid=url-share