Brown University reaches $50 million deal with White House to unfreeze funding
Brown University agreed Wednesday to a $50 million deal with the Trump administration after months of negotiations over its frozen medical and health sciences funding.
The voluntary agreement, worth $50 million over 10 years, will go to state workforce development organizations operating in compliance with anti-discrimination laws.
The news comes just a week after Columbia University's $200 million+ resolution agreement with the administration. It is also the third deal reached with an Ivy League school in the month after the University of Pennsylvania’s agreement over Title IX violations.
The administration alleged Brown failed to combat antisemitism and discrimination on its campus. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the deal reversed the decades-long "woke-capture" of the nation’s higher education institutions.
“Brown has committed to proactive measures to protect Jewish students and combat Antisemitism on campus,” McMahon wrote in a statement.
“Women’s sports and intimate facilities will be protected for women and Title IX will be enforced as it was intended," she said.
The agreement will reinstate payments for active research grants and restore Brown's ability to compete for new federal grants and contracts while also meeting Brown’s core imperative of preserving the ability for its students and scholars to teach and learn without government intrusion, according to the university.
“We applaud the agreement’s unequivocal assertion that the agreement does not give the government the 'authority to dictate Brown’s curriculum or the content of academic speech,'” University President Christina Paxton said in a statement.
In contrast with other universities, Brown said it had not been informed of a reason for the freeze of its federal research funding, and at no time has Brown been informed of any finding that the University violated any law. The agreement states that "Brown expressly denies liability regarding the United States’ allegations or findings."
Brown had more $500 million in federal research grants and contracts paused in March. The school reportedly struggled financially without the funding and said it took out a $300 million loan in April and another $500 million loan earlier this month.
Of the dozens of universities being pressured by the administration to end what it calls divisive policies, including but not limited to antisemitism and DEI, Brown is one of the most prominent schools that the administration has withheld federal funding from for its alleged violations.
Harvard University is in ongoing talks with the Trump administration about its deal as it faces off with the White House in court. The administration’s joint task force on antisemitism froze more than $2 billion in federal funding for the school’s failure to condemn alleged harassment of Jewish students.
