One aspect of President Trump’s deal with Columbia University that is being overlooked is the significance of this deal’s existence at all. And here, there is more room for optimism on both sides than one would expect from the reactions to yesterday’s announcement.

To review: the Trump administration and Columbia reached a settlement regarding the latter’s deemed violations of Jewish students’ Title VI civil rights. In March, the outlines of this deal were formed when the White House ordered the suspension of $400 million in federal funding for the university and set a list of conditions that, once fulfilled, could trigger the resumption of government cash. The National Institutes of Health then canceled its research funding for the school.

Columbia has agreed to pay the federal government $200 million and about $20 million to Jewish university employees who made discrimination complaints against the school.

The rest of the concessions have to do with changes in policy. And while there are changes that faculty and administrators at Columbia (and other colleges) oppose, the concessions are all relevant to the issue of anti-Semitism at the university. That was not the case regarding the administration’s demands of Harvard, for example, and the fact that this deal stays on topic ought to settle some nerves in academia—especially because a done deal like Columbia’s is more likely than an open-ended dispute like Harvard’s to be used as a model settlement for similar cases.

Regarding the physical security of students on campus, Columbia has agreed to maintain a security force trained in preventing the violent takeover of large areas or buildings and to remain in contact with the NYPD in cases where that training might be tested. The school will enforce a mask ban, with religious and health exceptions.

Regarding bureaucratic procedures, the school will place disciplinary matters in the hands of a provost instead of the faculty senate and will share related data on foreign students with the federal government.

Academically, the departments in which anti-Semitism is permitted or encouraged to flourish—disciplines where pseudo-histories and conspiracy theories crowd out facts—will be put under review by a university provost rather than an outside party, preserving academic independence while ensuring compliance with federal law.

The deal has a three-year sunset and will be monitored by a third-party agreed to by both sides but paid for by Columbia.

These terms may answer one question about the administration’s efforts to penalize institutional anti-Semitism: Is the president using anti-Semitism as a pretext to destroy these educational institutions? The Columbia settlement strongly suggests the answer is no.

The first reason to see it that way is that Columbia, unique among even Ivy League schools in the level and intensity of its campus anti-Semitism, is inking a deal to have its funding restored after just a few months. The administration’s stated desire to resolve the impasse was genuine, telegraphed immediately, and concluded despite inconsistent leadership at Columbia, which is now on its third president in the past year.

Second, the details of the deal are relevant to the stated aims of the government: addressing anti-Semitism on campus. Some may doubt the deal will be successful in that regard while others may believe the state has no business trying to solve that particular problem at all (a difficult claim to make considering the federal funding involved), but there’s no denying that the reforms are consistent with the administration’s rhetoric about anti-Semitism on campus.

Third, and perhaps most important, the policy changes work to the benefit of the school. Columbia will be required to do what everybody knows it needed to do all along. The university had given in to an anarchy that was quickly destroying Columbia’s ability to function as an educational institution. It isn’t Donald Trump who wanted to destroy Columbia University—the school was well on its way to doing that itself. The president could have stepped aside and let the runaway train end up wherever it was headed. If the school survives the recent mayhem with its academic prestige intact, it will be because Columbia followed the terms of this deal.