The College Fix

News follows similar funding pauses at Brown, Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, and University of Pennsylvania

Two more prestigious universities, Northwestern and Cornell, are being temporarily cut off from federal funding as the Trump administration continues to investigate possible civil rights violations in higher education institutions.

Federal officials confirmed the funding freeze to the New York Times on Tuesday, including more than $1 billion to Cornell University in New York and about $790 million to Northwestern University in Illinois.

However, neither university has been made aware of the full impact of the decision, officials said.

“While we have not received information that would confirm [$1 billion in cuts], earlier today Cornell received more than 75 stop work orders from the Department of Defense related to research that is profoundly significant to American national defense, cybersecurity, and health,” university leaders said in a statement Tuesday.

These grants “include research into new materials for jet engines, propulsion systems, large-scale information networks, robotics, superconductors, and space and satellite communications, as well as cancer research,” they said.

“The university has worked diligently to create an environment where all individuals and viewpoints are protected and respected,” the Cornell leaders said.

According to the New York Times:

The funding pause involves mostly grants from and contracts with the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Education and Health and Human Services, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the unannounced decision.

Cornell and Northwestern are both facing investigations into allegations of antisemitism and into accusations of racial discrimination stemming from their efforts to promote diversity.

Northwestern President Michael Schill said members of the news media first made him aware of the funding freeze, The Daily Northwestern reports.

In a campus-wide email Tuesday, Schill promised to “provide further information to those affected by the freeze and the NU community ‘as the implications of these actions become clearer,’” according to the report.

The news follows similar funding pauses at Brown, Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, and the University of Pennsylvania, The College Fix reported earlier this week.

The Trump administration has cited problems with antisemitism, DEI policies, and men participating in women’s sports as reasons for its actions.

In March, the U.S. Department of Education sent a letter to the universities now facing funding freezes, and dozens of others, warning of “potential enforcement actions” if they fail to protect Jewish students on campus.

“U.S. colleges and universities benefit from enormous public investments funded by U.S. taxpayers. That support is a privilege and it is contingent on scrupulous adherence to federal antidiscrimination laws,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon stated in a news release at the time.

Meanwhile, a U.S. Department of Justice task force on antisemitism has been visiting campuses this spring to investigate administrators’ handling of antisemitism and anti-Israel protests in recent years, The Fix reported previously.

MORE: Trump yanks $400M from Columbia: ‘Inaction in face of persistent harassment of Jewish students’

IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: Flowers bloom near the Cornell University sign. Amy Lutz/Shutterstock

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