PROVIDENCE — Brown University has reached an agreement with the Trump administration to restore the university’s federal research funding and address allegations that it failed to do enough to stop the harassment of Jewish students, according to a copy of the agreement viewed by the Globe.
In exchange for the restoration of nearly $50 million in research grants, Brown will pledge $50 million over the next 10 years to state workforce development organizations in Rhode Island.
The deal, which was finalized Wednesday, settles three open investigations into the university, and does not require the Ivy League institution to admit any wrongdoing or make a payment to the federal government.
This deal is unlike the Trump administration’s recent settlement with Columbia University, which will pay more than $220 million to restore federal research money that was canceled by the Trump administration in the name of combating antisemitism on campus following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. Education Secretary Linda McMahon called the Columbia deal a “road map” for agreements with other institutions.
As part of the settlement, Brown agreed not to engage in racial discrimination in admissions or university programming, and will provide access to admissions data to the federal government so it can assess compliance with merit-based admissions. Brown’s agreement with the Trump administration does not appear to include any restrictions on how or what the school teaches.
The agreement also bars Brown from performing any gender-affirming surgeries on minors or prescribing puberty blockers, a treatment for gender dysphoria that stops the body from making certain hormones. While the university does have a medical school, it has never performed any gender-affirming surgeries and is a separate entity from Brown University Health, formerly Lifespan Corp., the state’s largest health care system. The agreement’s provision on transgender care is expected to become a symbolic point of contention on campus.
Brown also agreed to adopt President Trump’s definitions of a male and female, which were laid out in an executive order in January, for women’s sports, programing, facilities, and housing. The executive order declared that the federal government would only recognize a person’s sex assigned at birth.
In a statement, Brown president Christina H. Paxson said there are aspects of the agreement that “are priorities of the federal administration in resolving the funding freeze.”
“I stated that Brown should uphold its ethical and legal obligations while also steadfastly defending academic freedom and freedom of expression, for both the university as an institution and for individual members of our community,” said Paxson. “By voluntarily entering this agreement, we meet those dual obligations.”
It is unclear whether Brown’s agreement will affect the Trump administration’s ongoing battle with Harvard, the nation’s oldest and wealthiest university. The administration has accused Harvard of pushing liberal ideology, claimed the school’s diversity, equity, and inclusion programs lead to discrimination, and frozen billions of dollars in federal funding.
Harvard sued the administration last month over funding cuts, accusing the federal government’s use of research funding as leverage to exert control over the university’s academic affairs, admissions, hiring, and diversity practices represents an unconstitutional abuse of federal power. Harvard is also negotiating with the Trump administration to restore its federal dollars, and the university has made a handful of changes that bring it more in line with Trump’s goals.
Trump has indicated that Harvard will likely have a high price tag to settle, as well. Asked Wednesday if the reported $500 million under consideration is enough, Trump indicated it could be.
“Well it’s a lot of money,” he said at the White House. “We’re negotiating with Harvard now, they would like to settle, so we’ll see what happens.”
The deal will also require Brown to conduct a student survey of the campus and social media harassment study and report the results to the Trump administration. Other parts of the deal simply codify what was previously pledged by Brown in combating alleged antisemitism on campus, such as enhancements to policies and procedures, organizational structures, reporting and complaint-resolution processes, resources, training, and other aspects of the university’s Title VI compliance infrastructure.
“The Trump administration is successfully reversing the decades-long woke-capture of our nation’s higher education institutions. Because of the Trump administration’s resolution agreement with Brown University, aspiring students will be judged solely on their merits, not their race or sex,” said McMahon in a statement. “Brown has committed to proactive measures to protect Jewish students and combat antisemitism on campus. Women’s sports and intimate facilities will be protected for women and Title IX will be enforced as it was intended.”
Brown receives about $250 million in federal funding annually. Located in Providence, the school is one of Rhode Island’s largest employers and a key player in building out the state’s life sciences and medical industries.
It is already facing a $46 million budget deficit and a hiring freeze, and has had to find funding by dipping into its $7.2 billion endowment, one of the smallest among Ivy League schools. Earlier this week, the university took out a $500 million loan, and in April the school borrowed $300 million to face “deep financial challenges” head on.
Many faculty, alumni, and students at Brown have stood by statements made by Paxson in recent months, and requested that university leadership and its governing body continue to stand up and fight against the president’s tactics.
The White House confirmed to a Globe reporter on April 4 that it was pausing $510 million in funding to Brown over over what the administration calls its effort to hold elite universities accountable for persistent antisemitism on campus. At the time, it was joined by other Ivy League institutions in Trump’s quest to hold them accountable, including Cornell, Harvard, and Northwestern.
Yet, Brown officials said, the White House never formally notified the school of its intention to freeze funding. After the freeze, and for the first time since 2002, Brown hired firms to lobby Congress and the Trump administration on its behalf.
Even as some grants at Brown have been terminated, Brown researchers have continued to pursue federal funding opportunities, university leaders said, including a $20 million grant from the National Science Foundation to build a new artificial intelligence research institute announced Tuesday that aligns with Trump’s new AI Action Plan.
While several other agencies continued to pay grants previously promised to Brown, the National Institutes of Health, the government’s medical research funder, froze all payments flowing to the school. The agreement reached Wednesday will require NIH to pay the more than $50 million it owes in reimbursements to Brown. That amount grows by about $3.5 million each week as work from the active grants continue.
Critics of the administration have argued that Trump is trying to extort universities and inhibit academic freedom.
“The only way to deal with a bully is to stand up strong,” said Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee and a former constitutional law professor, earlier this month. “No college or university should be negotiating away any of its institutional freedom and academic prerogatives.”
The settlement comes as higher education institutions face the broad financial impacts of Trump’s domestic policy bill that became law on July 4. The Republican-driven plan will expand the tax on endowments, cap the amount students can borrow for graduate programs, and roll back student loan protections.
While Brown’s agreement may bring some relief to its campus, other elite universities are still battling against the Trump administration’s demands.
On Wednesday, the Trump administration also announced it was freezing $108 million in research funding to Duke University as the federal government accuses the school of racial discrimination in the form of affirmative action.
The University of Pennsylvania also recently settled with the administration in a civil rights case over transgender athletes.
Tal Kopan of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
Alexa Gagosz can be reached at alexa.gagosz@globe.com. Follow her @alexagagosz and on Instagram @AlexaGagosz.