Brown University hasreached a dealwith theTrump administrationtorestore more than $500 million in federal fundingto the school andclose three government investigationsinto its campus. The compact, which Brown's president announced July 30, came exactly one week after the White House entered into a separateunprecedented agreement with Columbia Universityand levied fines against that school, Brown's peer in the Ivy League, totaling more than $220 million. Unlike the contract with Columbia, Brown won't pay money directly to the government. Instead, the university in Providence, Rhode Island, committed to providing $50 million in grants to workforce development organizations across the state over the next 10 years. There were other stipulations, however: The university said it would commission a survey on campus life to its Jewish students. It also said it would hand over admissions data, broken down by various factors including race, in an annual report to the federal government (a provision included in the Columbia agreement as well). Read more:The details of Columbia's extraordinary $220 million deal with Trump Brown also promised to comply with President Donald Trump's executive order aimed atbanning transgender athletes in women's sports. And the university said its medical facilities would not give gender-affirming to minors. In exchange, the Trump administration promised to reinstate payments for active research grants at the university and restore its ability to compete for new federal grants and contracts. In a statement announcing the deal, Brown President Christina Paxson emphasized that the agreement does not give the government any authority to "dictate Brown's curriculum or the content of academic speech." Read more:Ivy League colleges face a reckoning after Columbia's Trump deal "The University's foremost priority throughout discussions with the government was remaining true to our academic mission, our core values and who we are as a community at Brown," she said. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement, "the Trump Administration is successfully reversing the decades-long woke-capture of our nation's higher education institutions." The White House for months has been ratcheting up pressure on colleges and universities to comply with its interpretations of civil rights laws – and withholding billions in federal funding from schools that don't immediately cooperate. Officials at the Education Department and other agencies have argued the funding freezes are primarily about preventing antisemitism on campus amid the Israel-Hamas war. But many of the Trump administration's demands to schools have been tied tolongstanding Republican grievanceswith higher education, which many conservativesview as too liberal. Zachary Schermele is an education reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach him by email at zschermele@usatoday.com. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and Bluesky at @zachschermele.bsky.social. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Brown inks deal with Trump administration to restore funds
