Last updated on Nov. 28 at 8:25 p.m.
Northwestern reached a deal with the Trump administration to restore at least $790 million in frozen funding Friday, ending months of negotiations and federal investigations. The deal will restore funding for existing and approved grants and reinstate NU’s eligibility for federal grants, contracts and awards.
The agreement obligates the University to pay the federal government $75 million and “adhere to federal anti-discrimination laws,” which the Trump administration has previously accused NU of violating in its admissions, diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and enforcement of demonstration policies. In exchange, the government will close all pending investigations into the University, in addition to restoring funding.
NU expects to begin receiving federal funding “within days” and for funding to be fully restored within 30 days, according to a statement from the University. This applies to all active, federally-funded grants impacted by the freeze, including overdue payments for non-terminated grants and contracts.
The deal comes seven months after The New York Times first reported the freeze on April 8. The Department of Health and Human Services subsequently confirmed to The Daily that the freeze was due to federal antisemitism investigations into the University.
The agreement is intended to protect students from discrimination and “recommits the school to merit-based hiring and admissions,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon wrote in a Friday news release.
The deal stipulates that NU commit to “clear policies and procedures” regarding demonstrations, protests and other “expressive activities,” as well as mandatory antisemitism training for students, faculty and staff. It also ends the University’s commitment to the 2024 Deering Meadow agreement, which promised more support to Muslim, Middle Eastern and North African and Palestinian students, as well as increased transparency about NU’s investments.
Additionally, the deal commits the University to reviewing its admissions process for international students and creating material to familiarize those students with a campus “dedicated to inquiry and open debate.” The agreement reiterates that NU is required to meet federal Title IX obligations by “providing safe and fair opportunities for women,” as “defined on the basis of sex,” including accommodating requests for single-sex housing and all-female sports, locker rooms and showering facilities.
But interim University President Henry Bienen insisted that the University will maintain its autonomy. In a statement to the NU community Friday afternoon, Bienen reiterated that “the payment is not an admission of guilt.”
“I would not have signed anything that would have given the federal government any say in who we hire, what they teach, who we admit or what they study,” Bienen said in a Q&A video published on the Office of the President website. “Put simply, Northwestern runs Northwestern.”
Bienen’s statement echoes his remarks at a Faculty Assembly meeting on Oct. 15, when he expressed interest in a deal with the federal government, but said he would not sign an agreement that “hinders the autonomy of the University.” At the meeting, faculty overwhelmingly voted to reject the Trump administration’s “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” or any capitulation similar to the compact.
The University is required to pay the $75 million through 2028 without the use of donor funds. The figure is the second-highest fine any university has paid to the Trump administration so far, after Columbia University’s settlement of more than $200 million to the federal government in July. NU joins the ranks of other elite institutions that have brokered deals with the Trump administration, including Columbia, Cornell University, Brown University, the University of Virginia and the University of Pennsylvania.
The funding freeze resulted in more than 100 stop-work orders affecting federally funded research. Since then, more than $1.06 billion in awards from the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation have gone unpaid. After the funding freeze, the University faced a “significant budget gap” that couldn’t be bridged without cutting personnel costs, culminating in its July announcement that it would eliminate more than 400 staff positions.
The exact amount of frozen funding that will be restored under the deal is unclear.
According to a Department of Justice news release, NU’s president and the chair of the Board of Trustees will verify compliance with the deal on a quarterly basis.
“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 wrote in the release. “Institutions that accept federal funds are obligated to follow civil rights law — we are grateful to Northwestern for negotiating this historic deal.”
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— Federal government freezes $790 million in funding for Northwestern
