It’s one thing to agree to change its discriminatory ways, even if progressive dogma proclaimed discrimination was the new anti-discrimination and Columbia bought into it as a good woke institution. But if the point was to get Columbia to protect Jewish students from discrimination, what does paying $200 million to the government in exchange for getting $400 million in federal research grants back fix?

Columbia University will pay a $200 million fine to settle allegations from the Trump administration that it failed to do enough to stop the harassment of Jewish students, part of a sweeping deal reached on Wednesday to restore the university’s federal research funding, according to a statement from the university.

The deal, which settles more than a half-dozen open civil rights investigations into the university, will be overseen by an independent monitor agreed to by both sides who will report to the government on its progress every six months. Columbia will also pay $21 million to settle investigations brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Unlike cowardly law firms, Columbia is a university, not a profit-making venture. It doesn’t make money selling widgets, but by doing research, alumni donations and conferring degrees. And its “business model” had been predicated on maintaining those sources of revenue, building the infrastructure necessary to fulfill its functions, including its research, which relied upon the ongoing largesse of the federal government for funding.

Cutting off federal research funding, while of dubious connection to its engagement in discrimination, will certainly serve its purpose in bringing Columbia to its knees, as the research house of cards will come tumbling down when the funding spigot got turned off. But then, what purpose is served by demanding the vig as well as compliance with anti-discrimination law?

In economic history, we teach the 1688 creation of parliamentary supremacy as a solution to what economists call “commitment problems.” In the absence of a third party sufficiently strong to make sure all sides stick to their promises, the powerful can renege on the powerless. The powerless, seeing this, wisely choose to not contract with the powerful. Absolutist rulers are victims of their own lack of restraints; a sovereign who is too powerful cannot get inexpensive credit, because nothing stops the ruler from defaulting on any bond. President Trump, by smashing checks on his authority, has wound up undermining his own ability to make credible deals, including the one just reached with Columbia University, where I teach.

Columbia agreed to pay $200 million to the government for funding peace. Presumably, that money will come from its endowment, which will be money unavailable for use for other purposes and will be made up by tuition. Will Columbia get what it paid for?

The entities that have been striking deals with Mr. Trump, my own employer included, have not learned the lessons of the Glorious Revolution. Trade negotiators from longtime partner countries, government contractors, law firms, federal employees, permanent residents, the Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, even the Transportation Security Administration labor union are all experiencing contractual vertigo, finding out that the administration will not honor previous agreements.

The first Trump administration renegotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement to get the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, but Mr. Trump has imposed tariffs on Mexico and Canada in violation of even that agreement. Parties thinking they can wheedle their way into a bargain with a capricious administration are bringing intuitions from the world of private deals, backstopped by the rule of law, into the very different realm of political bargains with absolutism-adjacent executive branches.

Trump, the builder, has long been known for his refusal to honor commitments. He doesn’t pay his debts. Honoring promises is for the little people, which is why so many in New York refused to have anything to do with him. As president, things are even worse as he renegs on behalf of a country rather than one dishonorable person.

This deal won’t end Columbia’s torture. Whatever onerous terms the school has agreed to will be deemed to have been broken in the face of a campus protest, an edgy syllabus, a leaked classroom discussion or even an acerbic student opinion piece. New civil rights violations will be imagined, new vistas of anti-Americanism on campus will be discovered, and the attacks will continue.

Much of what transpired at Columbia was unlawful and should have been thwarted immediately, rather than tolerated, excused and, ultimately, allowed. But it is still a university and it will still have classes in controversial subjects, professors who teach radical thought and students who protest whatever they’re told to protest at any given moment. Should all of this be done in a lawful manner, neither Columbia nor the federal government has any cause to stop it or punish it.

Free speech, academic freedom and lawful protest can’t be prohibited by either. Does anyone believe that Trump will honor rights? Does anyone doubt that if and when it happens, and it will, the payment of $200 million will be forgotten and the administration will pull its funding to crush Columbia yet again?

Having the government intimately involved in the operation of a university is deeply problematic on many levels, and will no doubt end up being a nightmare for Columbia. But its failure to deal with the unlawful and discriminatory conduct on campus brought this on the school. The money, however, is nothing more than paying for protection, bribing Trump to get the federal research funding back, and contributes absolutely nothing to the mix.

Punishment for Columbia? Columbia isn’t punished. Its students and professors will be, but not a university which isn’t like a business that loses profits and watches its stock price drop. And the worst part will be that the protection money will be paid for naught when the next protest happens and Trump pulls the plug all over again. Honoring deals is not his way and Columbia should have known that.