Northwestern University to pay $75 million to federal government to settle antisemitism claims, restore frozen funds
Northwestern University will pay $75 million to the federal government over the next three years to end an investigation into anti-Semitism led by the Trump administration and restore hundreds of millions of dollars in frozen funds.
The agreement was announced Friday evening by the university and the Trump administration, which froze $790 million in federal funds for the Northwest in April, accusing the school of fostering anti-Semitism on campus.
“Today’s settlement marks another victory in the Trump administration’s fight to ensure that America’s educational institutions protect Jewish students and prioritize merit,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement. “Institutions that accept federal funds are obligated to comply with civil rights law – we are grateful to Northwestern for negotiating this historic agreement.”
The university said it expects all frozen federal funding to be fully restored within 30 days as part of the settlement.
In addition to paying $75 million to the federal government, Northwestern also agreed to review its international admissions and develop training for international students to learn “campus standards,” and to reaffirm measures to protect Jewish members of the community.
In a statement, Northwestern Interim President Henry Bienen defended the settlement agreement, emphasizing that he was fighting to maintain full control over hiring, admissions and academic programs under the agreement.
“As an imperative of negotiating this agreement, we had several hard red lines that we refused to cross: We would not relinquish any control over who we hire, who we admit as students, what our professors teach, or how our professors teach. I would not have signed this agreement without provisions ensuring that this is the case,” Bienen wrote. “Northwest runs to northwest. Period.”
In August, a group of Northwestern teachers wrote an open letter to the school administration, asking them not to make a deal with the Trump administration to restore frozen federal funding.
“Acquiring the administration’s tactics would make Northwestern complicit in an attack on higher education, which is a vital bulwark of civil society. The administration is circumventing legal processes and demanding what amounts to ransom from universities; such actions perpetuate its well-documented and dangerous abuse of executive power,” they wrote.
Since the federal funding freeze, Northwestern has announced a hiring freeze, reductions, layoffs And changes to the program and benefits to cope with its budget deficit. Michael Schill, former president of Northwestern University resigned in September amid fallout from the funding freeze and anti-Semitism investigation.
Several other major universities have also reached agreements with the Trump administration in recent months to resolve allegations of anti-Semitism and other discrimination on campus.
Columbia University in New York accepted a $200 million settlement in July, over three years to resolve investigations into alleged violations of anti-discrimination laws. Columbia also agreed to pay an additional $21 million to settle investigations by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Cornell University in New York agreed earlier this month to pay $30 million to the federal government to end an investigation into allegations of anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination in the context of campus protests against the war in Gaza. Cornell also agreed to invest $30 million in U.S. agricultural research.
Brown University also reached an agreement with the Trump administration to restore grant funding in exchange for commitments on women’s sports, anti-Semitism, admissions practices and a $50 million donation to workforce development programs.
The University of Pennsylvania also recently reached an agreement with the Trump administration over its policy regarding transgender athletes in women’s sports.
