Brown University to lose half a billion in federal funds under Trump move

The Trump administration is planning to halt more than half a billion dollars in contracts and grants awarded to Brown University, adding to a list of Ivy League colleges that have had their federal money threatened as a result of their responses to antisemitism, a White House official said.

Nearly $510 million in federal contracts and grants are on the line, said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the plan and spoke on condition of anonymity.

In an email Thursday to campus leaders, Brown Provost Frank Doyle said the university was aware of troubling rumours about government action on its research money. At this moment, we have no information to substantiate any of these rumours, Doyle said.

 

It comes two days after President Donald Trump's administration halted research grants at Princeton University. Dozens of universities are facing federal investigations into antisemitism following a wave of pro-Palestinian protests last year, but the administration has focused special attention on elite colleges.

Columbia University was the first one targeted, losing $400 million in federal money with threats to terminate more if it didn't make the campus safer for Jewish students. The school agreed to several demands from the government last month, including an overhaul of student discipline rules and a review of the school's Middle East studies department.

Trump's administration has promised a more aggressive approach against campus antisemitism, accusing former President Joe Biden of letting schools off the hook. It has opened new investigations at colleges and detained and deported several foreign students with ties to pro-Palestinian protests.