‘Barnard is basically brushing us aside’: Alumni cancel donations to the College, citing lack of transparency from administrators

Several alumni who ended their financial support to Barnard expressed frustrations about a lack of communication regarding the College’s handling of protests and antisemitism on campus.

Photo by Haley Scull/The Barnard Bulletin

By Karissa Song and Kimberly Wing

February 19, 2026

Several Barnard alumni who spoke to The Bulletin have revoked their bequests, annual gifts, and planned financial contributions to the College. They cited various reasons for ending their support, including the College’s lack of transparency, limited opportunities to interact with President Rosenbury, and general discontentment with administrators’ responses to antisemitism and student protesters on campus.

Recent alumni and current students shared a similar unwillingness to financially contribute to the College in the future.

Lack of communication amid campus tensions

Susan Chan (BC ’91) was a Pell Grant and financial aid recipient, which motivated her to “pay it forward” by writing an annual check to the College after graduating. However, Barnard’s disciplinary action against student protesters discouraged her from continuing her support.

During the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 academic years, Barnard suspended over 50 students who participated in the 2024 “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” at Columbia University, expelled student protesters, and allowed the NYPD on campus during pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

“I just felt like there was no accountability,” Chan stated. “Hearing about the atmosphere on campus was very de-motivating.” 

Chan sent an email to Barnard Alumnae Relations about ending her support to the College but did not receive a reply acknowledging or inquiring about her decision.

“Nobody ever got back to me,” she said. “There is no inquisition about why people are starting to feel disengaged.” 

Chan also recalled that, after she and her husband dropped her son off at a Columbia University summer program in 2025, security denied them access to Barnard’s campus, even after Chan stated that she was an alumna.

“You can’t expect us to donate and not give us access to campus. [Administrators] clearly don’t care what alumni are thinking or how we’re feeling,” she said. 

Following the renunciation of her annual support, Chan no longer receives reminders or requests to donate to Barnard. She plans to split her funds intended for Barnard between her high school and graduate program.

Similarly to Chan, another alumna (BC ’90) commented that she “would love to continue to support” but decided to stop making annual contributions due to the College’s response to student protests.

“Voices should be heard, but instead they chose sides and treated certain protesters more unfairly than others,” she explained.

The alumna also described her dissatisfaction with the way the College announced the dismissal of 77 full-time staff members and the hiring of new faculty in the summer of 2025.

“[It was a] very glossed over explanation of why people are leaving and why people are being hired,” she commented.

The alumna, who has a daughter enrolled at Barnard, also cited the College’s tuition rate as another factor of her decision to withdraw her annual donations. For the 2025-2026 academic year, tuition is $70,622, increased by 4.5 percent from the previous year. Barnard’s total cost of attendance is an estimated $99,874.

“I feel like I’m giving a lot in that aspect,” she explained. “I don’t think I need to give more at this point.”

Failure to address antisemitism on campus

Lorraine Newman Mackler (BC ’84), whose mother, daughter, and first cousins are also Barnard alumnae, called Barnard her “family school.” Mackler initially joined the College’s Athena Society, which recognizes “legacy donors” who support the college through bequests, life income, and other planned gifts. 

She cited the College’s handling of antisemitism on campus since 2023 as the reason why she and her mother removed Barnard from their wills. Mackler first expressed her disappointment to the College after receiving an email to the Barnard community from President Rosenbury, sent on October 10, 2023.

“[Barnard rejects] antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of hate, both in intent and effect,” Rosenbury wrote. “We also remain committed to intellectually honest and respectful discourse and the vital importance of discussing difficult topics, including the longstanding Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in an environment free from fear and hate.”

Mackler responded with a letter to the President’s Office in November 2023. She thanked President Rosenbury for joining former Columbia President Minouche Shafik’s Task Force on Antisemitism but implored her to “implement solutions as soon as humanly possible … to stop the harmful antisemitic events and activities occurring on and around campus.”

“Were I a student today, I would seek to transfer out immediately. Were my daughter at Barnard, I would counsel her to leave at once,” she continued. “Excelling at the University level is difficult enough without the toll an oppressive atmosphere takes on one’s mental, physical, and academic wellbeing.”

“Please let me know what concrete steps you are taking to stand in solidarity with Barnard’s Jewish community and to offer help,” Mackler concluded.

Mackler reported receiving only a generic response from Alumnae Relations, which neglected to fully address her request for information on the College’s handling of antisemitism. The following day, she canceled her bequest to the College and removed Barnard from her will.

Barnard’s Leadership Assembly leaves unanswered questions

One alumna (BC ’21) who attended Barnard’s 2025 Leadership Assembly, the “annual Barnard alumnae engagement conference,” stated that Rosenbury did not directly answer attendees’ questions regarding several issues on campus, including the 620 residence hall gas leaks, the treatment of students involved in pro-Palestinian demonstrations, and the College’s definitions of antisemitism and Islamophobia.

The alumna told The Bulletin that President Rosenbury only addressed concerns by stating that administrators would “get back to [attendees].” She noted that a lack of communication was not a significant issue under Barnard’s previous president Sian Beilock, who invited alumni to monthly Zoom conversations to share updates and gather feedback during the pandemic. 

Another alumna (BC ’72) who was present at the 2025 Leadership Assembly directly confronted President Rosenbury about the lack of communication regarding on-campus protests and arrests. President Rosenbury reportedly told her that legal circumstances prevented the College from publicly disclosing these issues. 

“The current state of higher education under [the second Trump] administration is beyond fraught,” the alumna conceded. She continued, “We are trying to be supportive of [Rosenbury], of the administration, of Barnard, but we feel shut out — just sidelined, not included.”

The alumna recalled that the Class of 1972’s liaison, who relayed alumni concerns to the administration, was promoted within Barnard’s Office of Development and Alumnae Relations, but the position was not replaced. 

She also stated that, while Barnard is currently listed as the largest donation recipient in her will, the College’s lack of communication is having her reconsider whether it is the “best use” of her funds.

“Barnard is basically brushing us aside,” she said.

Barnard’s future in alumni support

Barnard has recently seen a decrease in annual Giving Day donations, with contributions of approximately $2.1 million in 2022 dropping to $1.6 million in 2024 and $1.55 million in 2025. Conversely, Columbia’s Giving Day experienced an increase from $21.4 million in 2024 to $23.6 million in 2025, despite a significant drop from the $30 million raised in 2022. Both Barnard and Columbia postponed their 2023 Giving Day amid on-campus protests during the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

Although Giving Day results suggest a decrease in donations to Barnard, administrators report that alumni support and communications have improved.

According to a Barnard spokesperson, Barnard’s fundraising amounts from alumni “have steadily risen” from $15 million in fiscal year (FY) 2023 to $23 million in FY 2025. The spokesperson noted that public fundraising reports do not distinguish alumni contributions from the remainder of the donations received by the College. 

On ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer, which provides financial summaries of tax-exempt organizations, including educational institutions, a disclaimer on Barnard’s Form 990 tax filings mentioned a “significant deficiency in internal controls” that “could limit the organization’s ability to track and report financial data reliably.”

Barnard’s FY 2025 financial report stated that private gifts and grants comprised approximately four percent of the College’s total revenue. A message sent to the Barnard community from President Rosenbury and Chief Financial Officer Sharon Hewitt Watkins stated that in FY 2025, “Barnard demonstrated meaningful progress toward strengthening our financial footing while remaining firmly anchored in our longstanding mission.”

“We are deeply grateful to Barnard’s [community, including alumni] for their partnership and trust,” the report concluded. “Together, we are stewarding Barnard’s resources responsibly and investing, with purpose and care, in today’s community and the generations to come.”

On November 26, 2025, President Laura Rosenbury thanked alumni and other community members in an email for their contributions to the College and encouraged them to continue their support during Barnard’s Season of Giving. She described a “meeting with alumnae, parents, and friends in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore” in October 2025.

“Our conversations returned to the same themes: the importance of community, finding ways to ‘disagree better,’ and the desire to support one another with empathy, care, and respect,” she wrote.

Many alumni who withdrew their support to the College, however, expressed their feelings about the administration’s apparent disregard of individual support and concerns.

“It’s very short-sighted of them to care about large donations and not care about participation and engagement from alumni,” said Chan. “In the long run, when people down the line want to give back to the College, you want to build that sense of camaraderie and engagement. By dismissing us [smaller donors], they really don’t care what we do.”

Recent Barnard alumni and graduating students echoed these sentiments, attributing their refusal to donate in the future to their experiences under the College’s current administration.

“While I value the many meaningful experiences I had at Barnard, I will not be making donations to the institution now or in the future,” said Daisy Friedman (BC ’24). “The administration’s handling of the student protests in spring 2024 revealed a disconnect between the radical values Barnard promotes and its willingness to uphold them in practice.”

“I cannot financially support an institution that failed to foster open dialogue and instead responded to student expression with arrests and violence,” she added. “I am proud to be part of a lineage of strong Barnard women, and it is precisely because of the education I received there that I feel compelled to stand up for what I believe in.”

“I do not see myself donating to Barnard in any formal capacity upon graduation,” a current Barnard senior told The Bulletin. “This college has done irreparable damage to its relationship with students and faculty by punishing them at every opportunity for protesting against Israel’s genocide of Palestine and repeatedly betraying their purported ideals in favor of stifling speech and discourse.”

“I have no faith that any donation of mine would contribute to the well-being of students, especially not under this administration,” she concluded.

Many alumni and graduating students stated that they would alternatively choose to donate directly to Barnard and Columbia clubs and student movements.

Fostering community amidst turmoil

“Administrators should be more supportive of students and faculty because they’re what makes Barnard great,” commented one alumna (BC ’90). “If they can just reach out and be nice to students, they can capture a lot more donations, but I don’t know what their focus is.”

She added, “[Administrators] keep saying they don’t have a great endowment, but I don’t think they try hard enough to really reach out to their alums.”

Amid tensions on campus, many alumni expressed their wishes to engage with recent Barnard graduates and current students to strengthen the Barnard community.

An alumna (BC ’72) noted that the 1970 Kent State shootings occurred while she was a student. She suggested a “parallel” between the nationwide student strike following the Kent State shootings and the protests at Barnard, and she hopes for the College to arrange opportunities for alumni and students to exchange experiences and perspectives.

“What we would like is to know what students are thinking,” she stated. “Are they happy there? What would they like to see changed? What can we as alumnae do to sit down and talk to current students about our experiences and learn from them and have them learn from us?”

“We still are Barnard women,” she concluded. “You don’t stop being a Barnard woman once you graduate.”

Senior Advisor & Director of Development Sunaya Mueller contributed to reporting for this article.