Confronted with huge cuts to its federal funding, Columbia University’s leaders face a grim decision: They can yield to the Trump administration’s demands over alleged antisemitism — ceding extraordinary control to the federal government — or they can fight back, potentially risking even more debilitating cuts in an escalating clash.

Many colleges accused of tolerating antisemitism on their campuses have been settling with federal civil rights investigators in the weeks before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, who urged a tougher response to campus protests against the war in Gaza.