Trump also issues list of demands to Harvard to avoid losing funding
Brown University is now the fifth subject of a funding freeze by President Donald Trump’s administration, with $510 million on the line.
The administration plans to pause the funds while it investigates the school’s “diversity, equity, and inclusion” policies and response to antisemitism on campus, the Daily Caller reported.
This lack of funding could cause significant setbacks for the school, as it “received about $184 million through federal grants and contracts” in 2024, according to The New York Times.
Provost Frank Doyle told the university via email Thursday about “troubling rumors emerging about federal action on Brown research grants.”
However, he had “no information to substantiate any of these rumors” at the time.
Brown President Christina Paxson previously issued a statement on March 19 saying Trump’s similar demands of other universities “raise new and previously unthinkable questions about the future of academic freedom and self-governance.”
“The nation has witnessed what many in higher education fear may be only the first examples of unprecedented government demands placed on a private university as a condition for restoring federal funding,” Paxson (pictured) wrote.
“If Brown faced such actions directly impacting our ability to perform essential academic and operational functions, we would be compelled to vigorously exercise our legal rights to defend these freedoms, and true to our values, we would do so with integrity and respect,” she wrote.
The planned funding freeze comes after a letter from the U.S. Department of Education last month to 60 universities, including Brown, warning of “potential enforcement actions” if they fail to protect Jewish students on campus, according to a news release from the department.
Also included in the letter was Harvard University, which was hit Thursday with a list of demands it must fulfill to avoid losing funding, the Associated Press reported.
The letter demands the school ban face masks, enforce disciplinary policies, eliminate DEI practices, “reject race- and gender-based preferences in hiring and review,” and review programs “accused of fueling antisemitism,” The Harvard Crimson reported.
The Trump administration has suspended over $8.7 billion in multi-year grants and $255 million in contracts from Harvard due to antisemitism concerns, The College Fix previously reported.
The administration will determine whether to issue Stop Work Orders for any identified contracts. Further, it has mandated the school to “submit a comprehensive list of all contracts—both direct and through affiliates—between their institution and the federal government,” according to news release from the education department.
At the end of March, however, “More than 600 Harvard faculty signed a letter to Harvard’s governing boards urging the University to publicly condemn attacks on universities and defy orders that interfere with its independence,” the Crimson reported.
These actions follow similar funding cuts to Columbia University, Princeton University, and the University of Pennsylvania, tied to issues like antisemitism, DEI policies, and men participating in women’s sports.
MORE: Supreme Court ruling allows Trump to cancel DEI teaching grants
IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: Brown President Christina Paxson giving a speech; Brown University
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