WASHINGTON (AP) — Brown University on Wednesday announced a deal with the Trump administration to regain access to federal research funding and end investigations into alleged discrimination.
The Ivy League school agreed to pay $50 million to workforce development organizations in Rhode Island over 10 years as part of the agreement, along with other concessions in line with President Donald Trump’s political agenda. Brown will adopt the government’s definition of “male” and “female,” for example, and must remove any consideration of race from the admissions process.
Brown President Christina H. Paxson said the deal preserves Brown’s academic independence. The terms include a clause saying the government cannot dictate curriculum or the content of academic speech at Brown.
“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,” Paxson wrote.
The three-year deal has numerous similarities with one signed last week by Columbia University that the government called a roadmap for other universities. Unlike that agreement, however, Brown’s does not include an outside monitor.
The agreement with Brown restores dozens of grants and contracts that had been suspended during an investigation into Brown’s handling of allegations of antisemitism, including during pro-Palestinian protests on campus last spring. It also calls for the federal government to reimburse Brown for $50 million in unpaid federal grant costs.
Brown agreed to several measures aimed at addressing allegations of antisemitism on its campus in Providence, Rhode Island. The school said it will renew partnerships with Israeli academics and encourage Jewish day school students to apply to Brown. By the end of this year, Brown must hire an outside organization — to be chosen jointly by Brown and the government — to conduct a campus survey on the climate for Jewish students.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon said Brown’s deal ensures students will be judged “solely on their merits, not their race or sex.”
“The Trump Administration is successfully reversing the decades-long woke-capture of our nation’s higher education institutions,” McMahon said in a statement.
The settlement requires Brown to disclose a wealth of data on students who apply to and are admitted to the university, with information about their race, grades and standardized test scores. The data will be subject to a “comprehensive audit” by the government.
It bars Brown from giving preference to applicants because of their race. A 2023 Supreme Court decision already forbids such consideration, but the deal appears to go further, stopping Brown from using any “proxy for racial admission,” including personal statements or “diversity narratives.”
Columbia agreed to pay $200 million as part of its settlement. In negotiations with Harvard, the Trump administration is pressing for the Cambridge, Massachusetts school to pay far more.
In another agreement, the University of Pennsylvania pledged to modify school records set by transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, a deal that included no fine. ___
Associated Press writer Cheyanne Mumphrey contributed to this report.
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