By: Jerome Brookshire

Brown University announced on Wednesday that it had reached a $50 million settlement with the Trump administration to restore federal research funding that had been suspended earlier this year amid allegations of campus antisemitism. The deal, which was revealed in a public statement by the Ivy League institution, follows similar agreements made by other leading universities, including Columbia University, and reportedly foreshadows ongoing negotiations with Harvard University.

According to a report that appeared in The Jerusalem Post, the arrangement comes after a period of months in which the administration froze $500 million in Brown’s federal research grants and contracts, citing concerns about the treatment of Jewish students and broader issues of discrimination on campus. Under the terms of the new agreement, Brown will direct $50 million over the next decade to state workforce development organizations that comply with anti-discrimination statutes. In addition, the university has committed to several measures designed to improve the climate for Jewish students and to counter antisemitism within its academic and social environment.

As detailed in Brown’s announcement and reported by The Jerusalem Post, the university will renew partnerships with Israeli academic institutions, encourage Jewish day school students to apply for admission, and jointly select an outside organization with the federal government to conduct a survey on the campus climate for Jewish students. These initiatives are intended to address longstanding concerns raised by students, faculty, and national Jewish organizations about the prevalence of antisemitism on American college campuses.

The Trump administration, in its own statement, emphasized that the agreement demonstrates a new federal commitment to ensuring universities comply with anti-discrimination requirements. “This agreement is an acknowledgment that institutions of higher education must be places of safety and respect for all students, including Jewish students,” the administration noted.

President Donald Trump himself weighed in on the settlement, using his Truth Social platform to congratulate Brown. “There will be no more Anti-Semitism, or Anti-Christian, or Anti-Anything Else! Woke is officially DEAD at Brown,” he wrote. “Thank you for your attention to this matter!” His statement, as noted in the The Jerusalem Post report, underscored the broader political implications of these federal-university negotiations, which have become a recurring theme in the president’s ongoing engagement with higher education policy.

While the agreement’s provisions on antisemitism were broadly welcomed by Jewish leaders at Brown, the settlement also included measures that extend into areas unrelated to antisemitism. As reported by The Jerusalem Post, Brown agreed to adopt “biology-based definitions for the words ‘male’ and ‘female’” and pledged not to perform gender reassignment surgeries on minors or prescribe puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones at its medical school and affiliated hospital.

In a letter to the Brown community, President Christina H. Paxson emphasized that the university had safeguarded its academic independence during the negotiation process. “Beyond the financial stresses of terminated and unpaid research grants and contracts, we have observed a growing push for government intrusion into the fundamental academic operations of colleges and universities,” Paxson wrote. She stressed that the agreement explicitly affirmed that the government would not dictate Brown’s curriculum or the content of academic speech, a provision she said was vital for maintaining institutional autonomy.

The Jerusalem Post report noted that Paxson’s comments echoed concerns raised across the higher education sector, where administrators and faculty alike have worried that federal interventions under the banner of combating antisemitism may also serve as vehicles for imposing unrelated political or cultural agendas.

The response from Jewish leaders associated with Brown has been mixed. In April, following the initial funding cut, dozens of rabbis and cantors who are alumni of the university wrote an open letter to Paxson urging her not to “cede control to those who weaponize antisemitism.” According to the report in The Jerusalem Post, the letter argued that President Trump’s actions had “nothing whatsoever to do with combatting antisemitism” and instead risked fueling resentment by invoking Jewish concerns as a pretext for wider political goals.

The letter warned that such actions could ironically “evoke classical sentiments of resentment toward the Jewish community, whose name is being scapegoated as a conduit for an ulterior motive.” This sentiment reflects a broader debate among Jewish leaders over whether federal interventions of this kind protect Jewish students or inadvertently expose them to new forms of backlash.

By contrast, Rabbi Josh Bolton, the executive director of Brown RISD Hillel, welcomed the new settlement in a statement cited by The Jerusalem Post. “This agreement affirms what we already know so deeply, that Brown – especially under President Paxson’s leadership – is truly one of the great campuses for Jewish life anywhere in the US,” Bolton said. He added, “The settlement also makes clear that the work is not nearly done. We all have a stake in building a campus community where students of every background and perspective can feel at home. We will continue with joy and determination to ensure this for Jewish students, as we will on behalf of all students.”

Brown’s settlement follows closely on the heels of Columbia University’s $221 million agreement with the Trump administration last week, which also resolved allegations of campus antisemitism and the freezing of federal funds. According to the information provided in The Jerusalem Post report, negotiations are underway with Harvard University for a similar settlement. The University of Pennsylvania, penalized earlier over its policies regarding transgender student athletes, has already struck a separate agreement with the administration.

Taken together, these settlements reflect a wider federal strategy of leveraging research funding to shape university policy on issues ranging from antisemitism to gender and free expression. The Jerusalem Post report observed that these measures represent an unprecedented use of financial leverage to address cultural and political controversies within higher education.

The backdrop to these settlements is a sharp rise in antisemitic incidents on American campuses since October 7, when the Hamas terrorist organization carried out its attack in Israel. As The Jerusalem Post has reported, Jewish students at Ivy League schools and other universities have increasingly described a hostile climate, citing incidents of harassment, exclusion, and verbal abuse. Federal officials have pointed to these incidents as justification for stricter oversight and conditional funding agreements.

Yet the approach has also sparked a debate within the Jewish community itself, as reflected in the split between alumni signatories of the April letter and the current leadership of Brown Hillel.

Brown University’s $50 million settlement with the Trump administration marks another chapter in an unfolding confrontation between the federal government and elite academic institutions. The agreement highlights both the urgency of addressing antisemitism on campus and the complexities that arise when federal intervention intersects with broader political and cultural agendas.