Brown University has cut a deal with the Trump administration to restore research grant funding to the school, in exchange for commitments on women’s sports, antisemitism and admissions practices and a promise to donate $50 million to workforce development programs.
The Rhode Island-based school is now the third Ivy League university to reach a deal with the administration, which has lashed out at a range of colleges. Columbia University agreed to pay the federal government a $200 million settlement earlier this month, and the University of Pennsylvania reached a deal with the government over transgender athletes.
Brown announced the deal in a statement Wednesday and shared a copy of a nine-page agreement with the federal government. The Department of Education also confirmed in a statement that it had struck a deal with Brown.
Under the terms of the three-year deal released by Brown, the federal government agreed to restore frozen Health and Human Services grants to the school and close pending federal non-discrimination investigations into the university.
Meanwhile, Brown agreed to pay $50 million to local workforce programs over the next decade. It also promised to provide female student-athletes with locker rooms “strictly separated on the basis of sex,” define male and female for athletic purposes in a way that’s consistent with President Trump’s executive orders, commission a campus survey that asks about — among other things — issues of antisemitism and give the government access to admissions and discrimination complaint data.
The agreement says Brown did not admit to wrongdoing and “expressly denies liability regarding the United States’ allegations,” and specifies that the government does not have the “authority to dictate Brown’s curriculum or the content of academic speech.”
In a message to the school community, Brown President Christina Paxson also says Brown will not promise to make any direct payments to the government. She described it as a voluntary agreement.
