Columbia University said it was holding "good faith" negotiations with U.S. President Donald Trump's administration to regain federal funding, hours after Harvard rejected the administration's demands to audit the "viewpoint diversity" of its students and faculty,

Tensions are rising across American academia as the Trump administration froze over $2 billion in multi-year grants and contracts at Harvard University after its leaders refused to make key policy changes the White House also is demanding of other elite US colleges.