The Trump administration on Friday announced it reached a settlement with Northwestern University, agreeing to restore access to hundreds of millions in federal funding in exchange for promises the school made to enforce civil rights protections for Jewish students.
“Today’s settlement marks another victory in the Trump administration’s fight to ensure that American educational institutions protect Jewish students and put merit first,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “Institutions that accept federal funds are obligated to follow civil rights law — we are grateful to Northwestern for negotiating this historic deal.”
The Trump administration unfroze $790 million in federal grants to the school under the agreement. It also ended investigations into the institution by the Education, Justice, and Health and Human Services Departments that probed concerns the school allowed unlawful discrimination based on race, religion, sex, or national origin, including race-based admissions practices and a hostile educational environment directed toward Jewish students.
In exchange, Northwestern University will pay $75 million to the federal government over the next three years. In addition, the school made a number of commitments to the Trump administration, including a pledge to conduct a survey within six months to evaluate the campus climate for students, “including Jewish students,” that will question whether students “feel safe reporting antisemitism at Northwestern [and] whether they believe Northwestern has responded appropriately to any reports of alleged antisemitic conduct.”
Prior to signing the agreement, Northwestern also implemented mandatory antisemitism training for all students, faculty, and staff, according to documents. And the university agreed to establish a special committee of the Board of Trustees to ensure compliance with the agreement and provide “safe and fair opportunities for women, including single-sex housing for any woman, defined on the basis of sex, who requests such accommodations and all-female sports, locker rooms and showering facilities.”
“An institution that knows or acts with deliberate indifference as to the existence of a hostile environment has an affirmative responsibility to eliminate that hostile environment, remedy its effects, and prevent its recurrence, and that these measures include disciplinary actions,” the agreement reads.
The announcement this week makes Northwestern the latest in a series of universities that have agreed to settlements with the Trump administration after facing accusations they failed to implement sufficient safety and civil rights protections for Jewish students on campus, including during nationwide pro-Palestinian protests that at times turned violent. Columbia, Cornell, and Brown Universities are among the schools that have regained federal funding in exchange for settlements worth up to hundreds of millions of dollars and concessions on enforcing antidiscrimination laws.
Northwestern’s funding saga began in April. At the time, the Trump administration froze $790 million in federal grants to the school, as the White House targeted publicly funded universities accused of civil rights violations related to affirmative action and antisemitism. The school’s president, Michael Schill, later resigned, saying in September: “I believe now is the right time for new leadership to guide Northwestern into its next chapter.”
In a statement Friday, Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the “landmark” settlement institutes “reforms reflect bold leadership at Northwestern….[that] are a roadmap for institutional leaders around the country that will help rebuild public trust in our colleges and universities.”
“The Northwestern agreement is a huge win for current and future Northwestern students, alumni, faculty, and for the future of American higher education. The deal cements policy changes that will protect students and other members of the campus from harassment and discrimination, and it recommits the school to merit-based hiring and admissions,” she said.
A TIMELINE OF THE TRUMP-HARVARD SAGA
Northwestern Interim President Henry Bienen defended the deal, saying it fought to keep full control over hiring, admissions, and curriculum.
“As an imperative to the negotiation of this agreement, we had several hard red lines we refused to cross: We would not relinquish any control over whom we hire, whom we admit as students, what our faculty teach, or how our faculty teach. I would not have signed this agreement without provisions ensuring that is the case,” Bienen wrote. “Northwestern runs Northwestern. Period.”
