In the middle of Thanksgiving break, Northwestern announced “the deal.” NU would pay a $75 million fine, enforce a definition of antisemitism widely condemned as propaganda, and issue a titanium “Wildcard” to federal law enforcement: “Northwestern will maintain a security infrastructure, including Northwestern University Police Department resources, private security assets, and cooperation arrangements with local, regional, and federal law enforcement, that is sufficiently resourced to prevent and investigate violations of law or Northwestern’s policies and is reasonably equipped to intervene in violations while they are occurring, when practicable, so that violators could be apprehended and face appropriate discipline.” This sentence gives federal agencies carte blanche to delve into all of our records based on agenda-driven student complaints about faculty or each other on the thinnest of pretexts.
In short, NU has obliterated the constitutional rights to free speech, unreasonable searches and due process for each and every member of the NU community.
What did NU obtain in exchange? That depends on whom and when you ask. NU’s explainer page in late 2025 said the deal would address $790 million in paused funding.
And yet in his January State of the University address, President Henry Bienen announced an important fact: The feds promised to reimburse NU just $350 million, of which $345 million was for National Institutes for Health research and $5 million for Department of Defense projects, the reimbursement of which seems unlikely.
Upon hearing this, I sent an email to President Bienen, asking about the missing $440 million. He connected me with Vice President for Research Eric Perreault, and we met on Zoom. Perreault said the $790 million figure “came from Fox News” and not the federal government. It turns out that during the period of the so-called federal spending freeze, “funds continued to flow from all agencies that were funding us before the freeze,” Perrault explained, except NIH and DOD.
Of the actual projects impacted, Perreault explained that NU had written off $65 million of grants terminated, and the communities that would benefit from research on climate change and inequality, but had been covering paused NIH and DOD funds, again, for a total of $350 million. I pointed out his figures contradicted NU’s own statements on the deal, where NU, not Fox, asserted a $790 million shortfall. We reviewed the first two sentences in which NU announced the deal: “In April, Northwestern University learned that approximately $790 million in federal research funding had been frozen. In the months since, the University has worked to restore the funding, while continuing to support vital research, enabling it to continue through internal funding.” This is false. The cash flow shortfall NU backstopped was ~$350 million, less than half the number on the web site, according to statements on email and an online meeting with Perreault. Perrault stated he was not responsible for the announcement and was requesting that it be revised. Over a week after our conversation, the errant language remains unchanged.
The bottom line is that instead of standing up for constitutional rights, trustees paid $75 million for a reimbursement of $345 million (Bienen indicated DOD told NU the $5 million in question had been spent and was no longer available to be disbursed). I guess the NU spinmeisters think it’s a better look to sell off our rights for $715 million instead of $270 million.
Still, what about Bienen’s claim that NU could not sustain the $40 million per month payouts for NIH research underway, expenditures that might need to go on for years if NU took the Trump administration to court? NU has a $16.2 billion endowment and is chartered for the sole mission of education. A nonprofit with integrity would spend down the endowment to support its mission.
Alas, NU is not such a nonprofit. Its most recent disclosure to the Internal Revenue Service reveals that NU is funding business ventures with for-profit entities instead of education, even when this risks NU’s nonprofit status. The IRS asks, “Did the organization follow a written policy or procedure requiring the organization to evaluate its participation in joint venture arrangements under applicable federal tax law, and take steps to safeguard the organization’s exempt status with respect to such arrangements?” NU’s response? “No.”
No other disclosure for a peer institution, or indeed any I have seen, reveals no safeguards for its tax exempt status, including that for Princeton, which fought back against its funding freeze and has had much of its funding restored, without capitulations. Is it possible that the real reason NU caved is that our trustees could not stomach the scrutiny of NU’s finances such litigation would trigger?
A nonprofit reckless enough to give away rights it has no claim to control and to jeopardize its own nonprofit status is of course one that can lay no claim to the trust of any of its stakeholders, including the U.S. government.
To redress NU’s attacks on education, we are urging the Faculty Senate to immediately vote on resolutions to revise the Faculty Handbook, including allowing immediate appeals of any bans from teaching, as well as the ability of faculty to record meetings with administrators, and be alerted to and share information about internal or government investigations.
Meanwhile, a legal nonprofit is considering litigation and seeking plaintiffs. If any of the Trump-era policies or defunding have impaired your teaching or learning, please contact us at [email protected]. Your communications with the attorney will be confidential.
Jacqueline Stevens is a Professor of Political Science and the President of the Northwestern University American Association of University Professors. She can be contacted at [email protected]. If you would like to respond publicly to this op-ed, send a Letter to the Editor to [email protected]. The views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of all staff members of The Daily Northwestern.
