Brown agreed to donate $50 million to Rhode Island’s workforce development program.
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Officials announced Wednesday that Brown University reached a deal with the Trump administration to restore about $510 million of frozen federal research funds in exchange for various offers, but no payments were made.
Under the agreement, the federal government will restore millions of frozen research funds and resolve investigations on allegations of anti-Semitism on campus. While Brown will not pay for solutions to address Columbia’s Ivy League rivals, the university has committed $50 million to Rhode Island’s state workforce development efforts over the next decade.
Brown is the second university to reach a deal with the Trump administration since Columbia reached a similar deal last week. Trump officials said the Columbia settlement would be a template for talks with other universities, although other senior ED experts believe the deal is illegal and poses a threat to the industry as a whole. (Harvard University has also been in the government’s crosshairs for alleged anti-Semitism, and has reportedly considered a resolution of up to $500 million to resolve its ongoing dispute.)
Still, Brown agreed to multiple other changes. They include adopting the Trump administration’s definition of men and women, not performing gender-affirming surgeries or prescribing pubertal blockers for minors, providing enrollment data to the federal government, and conducting campus climate surveys and sharing results with the federal government. Brown also agreed to announce prior changes to the fight against discrimination on campus.
This transaction does not include restrictions on campus courses or courses.
“Essentially, the agreement retains the integrity of Brown’s academic foundation, and it makes us a community, through a considerable period of uncertainty to ensure that Brown will continue to be Brown, our students, faculty, alumni, parents, parents and friends know Brown for generations,” Christina Paxson said in a statement.
Brown announced the agreement shortly after the university received a $500 million loan, which could help insert research funding loopholes or fund a long-term legal battle. The university also borrowed $300 million in April after the Trump administration froze research funding on anti-Semitism allegations linked to pro-Palestinian protests.
The frozen funds and other changes in federal policy have suffered a tough blow, with officials warning in June that could cause “huge financial losses.”
Education Minister Linda McMahon celebrated the deal and asserted in a statement that the agreement would protect Jewish students from anti-Semitism and the women’s movement.
“Restoring higher education institutions across the country are committed to seeking truth, academic achievement and civil debate (all students can get rid of discrimination and harassment, which will be the lasting legacy of the Trump administration, which will benefit students and generations of American society.”
