Trump admin freezes funding to Cornell, Northwestern over rights concerns

By Janet Lorin and Akayla Gardner

 

Northwestern and Cornell are the latest elite universities to have federal grants frozen by the Trump administration, following similar moves against Columbia and Princeton. 

The administration has paused $1.05 billion to Cornell and $790 million to Northwestern because of potential civil rights violations, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. 

 

Northwestern said in a statement that it hasn’t received official notification from the government and was initially informed by members of the media. The New York Times first reported the freezes. A Cornell spokesperson didn’t immediately provide comment. 

 

President Donald Trump has hammered colleges for their handling of antisemitism after student protests roiled campuses following the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel and the Jewish state’s retaliatory response in Gaza. The crackdown has fueled concerns among faculty and students that the government is suppressing free speech and academic freedom, while also risking damage to research and innovation.

 

 

“Federal funds that Northwestern receives drive innovative and life-saving research, like the recent development by Northwestern researchers of the world’s smallest pacemaker, and research fueling the fight against Alzheimer’s disease, the university said in the statement, adding that the institution has “has fully cooperated with investigations by both the Department of Education and Congress.”

 

In March, The Trump administration canceled $400 million in funding for Columbia and last week threatened $9 billion in grants and contracts at Harvard. Princeton said dozens of research grants were suspended. 

 

Trump has taken actions to toughen federal oversight over US higher education, including drastically reducing the billions of dollars in federal research funding schools receive, and canceling the visas of hundreds of students, including those in the Pro-Palestine movement. 

 

In March, a joint federal task force said it would visit 10 schools, including Harvard, Columbia and Northwestern, to investigate separate incidents of alleged antisemitism. Northwestern and Cornell are both also among 60 schools the Education Department warned of potential enforcement actions if they don’t fulfill their obligation to protect Jewish students. 

 

Northwestern said in its most recent annual report that it received a “record-breaking” $1.05 billion in sponsored research funding, a 5 per cent increase from last year, though it’s not clear if the money is all from the federal government. The report said it received a renewable, five-year, $26 million grant from the National Science Foundation that will fund the a new engineering research center. 

 

The school’s president, Michael Schill, was called before Congress last year to testify last year, after he made a deal with protesters to clear an encampment on the campus in Evanston, Illinois.