Columbia University students are back in class Monday after their spring break, following their university’s decision to agree to new policies in compliance with demands from the White House.

U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the university is “on the right track” toward recovering the $400 million in federal funding after agreeing to implement the changes.

She issued a statement saying, “Columbia is demonstrating appropriate cooperation with the Trump Administration’s requirements, and we look forward to a lasting resolution. I have been in communication with Columbia University Interim President Katrina Armstrong over the last few weeks and appreciate her leadership and commitment to advance truly meaningful reforms on campus.”

Meanwhile, professors and faculty were protesting Monday afternoon against these concessions.

“I’m here to defend our university and defend democracy,” Timothy Frye, a political science professor at Columbia university, said.

This after Columbia, which was under pressure, conceded to the Trump administration’s demands Friday in the hopes of getting its $400 million of federal grants and contracts that the government stripped earlier this month.

Among the demands, the university agreed to banning mask wearing on campus with some exemptions, training campus police officers to make arrests and banning students from protesting in academic buildings.

The faculty protesting Monday, who are part of the American Association of University Professors, believe the university caved into the government’s demands, calling it a disgrace.

They say they’re concerned about academic freedom and want to protect intellectual discourse on campus.

“The assault on higher education erodes our country’s greatest asset: our human capital, and benefits only those who seek us harm,” Frye said.

All this comes after widespread pro-Palestinian protests on Columbia’s campus last year, including a massive encampment and demonstrators who took over a campus building.

There’s been concern among some Jewish students that the Ivy League school is not doing more to protect them.

The Trump administration is going after private institutions like Columbia for what it calls its inaction to combat antisemitism on campus.

“It matters for our students to know that we understand, we their teachers understand what is happening here,” Kimberly Phillips-Fein, history professor at Columbia, said. “We know that this has nothing to do with opposing antisemitism. We know that this is about control.”

But Jacob Fish, a civil engineering professor at Columbia, says he is encouraged by the agreement and feels hopeful it will protect Jewish faculty and students.

“Some demands have been met. But as I mentioned, a lot of important demands have not been met,” he said. “It’s a very, very good first step. I hope that there’s going to be some dialogue between different factions at Columbia University.”

Some of the professors who teach at the Ivy League institution believe this is a watershed moment. They’re also urging Columbia to stand up for a deeper set of values so that an environment of critical thinking and free speech is fostered — not threatened.

“We must find ways to ensure that every student on campus feels safe and secure, but also free to express their political point of view — and that’s really hard, but that’s the job,” Frye said.

Meanwhile McMahon says that the two sides — the federal government and Columbia — are in the final stages of negotiations to unfreeze the money.