Brown University reached an agreement with the Trump administration to restore its frozen federal funding after facing probes over the treatment of Jewish students on campus and the use of race in admissions.
The Wednesday deal between the Ivy League school and the federal government would restore millions in research grants and its eligibility to compete for new federal grants and contracts. About $510 million in federal funding was at risk for the institution.
In return, Brown agreed to pay $50 million in grants over 10 years to workforce development organizations in Rhode Island, bar transgender women from using women’s single-sex spaces and competing in sports, conduct a campus climate survey and maintain merit-based admissions policies, among other changes. But there is no finding or admission of wrongdoing in the closed investigations.
Brown President Christina Paxson in a statement said the agreement preserved the school’s “academic independence.”
“The University's foremost priority throughout discussions with the government was remaining true to our academic mission, our core values and who we are as a community at Brown,” Paxson said.
The agreement comes just one week following the Trump administration’s deal with Columbia University, which has been touted as a blueprint by federal government officials when dealing with other institutions facing antisemitism probes. Roughly 60 institutions — including Harvard, Cornell, Yale and Brown universities — face ongoing antisemitism investigations from the Trump administration.
“The Trump Administration is successfully reversing the decadeslong woke-capture of our nation’s higher education institutions,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement. “Restoring our nation’s higher education institutions to places dedicated to truth-seeking, academic merit, and civil debate — where all students can learn free from discrimination and harassment — will be a lasting legacy of the Trump administration.”
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