The Trump administration froze $790 million in federal funding for Northwestern, a White House official confirmed to The Daily.
The freeze, first reported Tuesday by The New York Times, comes amid recent attacks on some of the nation’s elite universities by the Trump administration, with more than $3.3 billion in federal funding having been paused or completely cut thus far.
In an email to the NU community around two hours after the news broke, University President Michael Schill said the federal government has not notified the University of the freeze. Instead, NU was “notified by members of the media.”
Schill wrote in the email that the administration will provide further information to those affected by the freeze and the NU community “as the implications of these actions become clearer.”
The administration also froze more than $1 billion in funding for Cornell University Tuesday, according to The New York Times.
A White House official referred The Daily to a tweet by Fox News senior producer Patrick Ward. Senior administration officials told Ward the funding freeze was a result of “ongoing, credible and concerning Title VI investigations,” according to the tweet.
NU and Cornell join universities like Brown University, Columbia University, Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University, which have all been affected by threats to funding over the past several weeks.
The pause primarily targets grants and contracts from the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Education and Health and Human Services, according to officials that The Times spoke to.
Many of these universities are also undergoing federal civil rights investigations. NU is currently being investigated by the Education Department and the Department of Justice.
NU is one of 10 universities that the Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism will visit. According to a Feb. 28 news release, the visit is in response to allegations that the universities “may have failed to protect Jewish students and faculty members from unlawful discrimination, in potential violation of federal law.” The task force will meet with university leadership, students, staff, local law enforcement and community members to “consider whether remedial action is warranted.”
NU is one of five universities that the Education Department announced it would investigate as a result of reported “widespread antisemitic harassment” on campus on Feb. 3. The Education Department later announced it sent letters to 60 universities on March 10, warning the schools of “potential enforcement actions” if the schools fail to protect Jewish students on campus under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
Some lawmakers immediately decried the move.
In a statement to The Daily, Mayor Daniel Biss called the Trump administration funding freeze “reprehensible.”
“Cutting lifesaving research and innovation is part and parcel of Trump’s drive to dismantle what’s best of America,” Biss said in the statement. “The City of Evanston will continue to stand strong for our values in the face of yet another authoritarian overreach.”
U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Evanston) said on X that “Trump’s reported decision to freeze funding at Northwestern University will put life-saving cures and critical research at risk.” She added that “this freeze won’t protect the Jewish students Trump claims to defend, it will instead undermine their academic endeavors.”
A University spokesperson told The Daily that the University’s “innovative and lifesaving research” is now at risk.
“The University has fully cooperated with investigations by both the Department of Education and Congress,” the spokesperson said.
Hannah Webster contributed reporting.
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