Northwestern University has agreed to a $75million settlement with the federal government over alleged race-based admissions practices and claims of a ‘hostile’ environment for Jewish students.
The agreement requires the Illinois university to implement mandatory antisemitism training for all students, faculty and staff.
Northwestern will also have to comply with federal anti-discrimination laws to make sure the school ‘does not preference individuals based on race, color, or national origin in admissions, scholarships, hiring, or promotion’.
The mammoth deal with the Trump administration was announced Friday. Northwestern’s payments will last through 2028.
As a result, the federal government will restore hundreds of millions of dollars in research funding it yanked amid the probe.
The university was dragged into an investigation over allegations it was not adequately protecting Jewish students amid the wave of pro-Palestine protests that swept campuses in the wake of the October 7 attack by Hamas.
The crisis led to the resignation of Northwestern’s president Michael Schill after three years in the job.
Officials from the Trump administration hailed the agreement. Linda McMahon, the Secretary of Education, called it a ‘huge win’ for current and future students, as well as alumni and faculty.
She said in a statement: ‘The deal cements policy changes that ‘will protect students and other members of the campus from harassment and discrimination,’ and it recommits the school to merit-based hiring and admissions.’
The US government announced a $75m agreement with Northwestern on Friday. The school will address claims of a ‘hostile’ environment for Jewish students as part of the deal
The agreement with the Trump administration requires Northwestern to implement mandatory antisemitism training for students, faculty and staff
Attorney General Pam Bondi added that the settlement ensured American universities would ‘protect Jewish students and put merit first.’
As part of the full agreement, Northwestern will hire an external party to survey the campus ‘climate for Northwestern students, including Jewish students’.
The university said the deal ended a ‘deeply painful and disruptive period’ in the school’s history.
Interim Northwestern president Henry Bienen said the deal was made ‘based on institutional values.’
He wrote that the university would ‘not relinquish any control’ over who they hire, which students they admit or what their faculty taught and how.
‘Northwestern runs Northwestern,’ Bienen added. ‘Period.’
The school said it negotiated an agreement with the Trump administration because ‘the cost of a legal fight was too high and the risks too grave’.
Northwestern students had set up tents outside the university as part of protests following Israel’s bombardment of Gaza in the wake of October 7
US Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the deal was a ‘roadmap for institutional leaders around the country’ that would help ‘rebuild public trust’ in schools
The three-year-long deal put to bed investigations by the US Departments of Justice, Education and Health and Human Services.
Schill announced his decision to step down after serving as university president for three years on September 4.
He said it was ‘time for new leadership to guide Northwestern’ after facing months of scrutiny from the US government.
Last year, Schill also appeared before Congress over claims Northwestern was not doing enough to protect its Jewish students from harassment and anti-Semitic attacks as activists protested Israel’s war on Hamas.
His resignation arrived after the Trump administration in April froze $790million of Northwestern’s federal research funding due to ‘several ongoing credible and concerning Title IV investigations.’
Three months later, the university took the ‘drastic step’ of eliminating about 425 positions – of which about half were vacant.
Northwestern officials said reducing the workforce was the result of a budgetary gap and called it the ‘most painful measure we have had to take.’
Michael Schill, the former president of Northwestern University, appeared before a House committee hearing ‘Calling for Accountability: Stopping Antisemitic College Chaos’ last year. He stepped down amid the controversy
Northwestern interim president Henry Bienen said the agreement restored the school’s frozen federal funding and ended a ‘deeply painful and disruptive period in our university’s history’
A statement from the university added: ‘We continue to work every day to get our frozen federal research funding restored, and we are hopeful it will happen soon. But we want to be clear that the financial measures we have taken this spring and summer — including layoffs — are in response to more than just the federal research funding freeze.’
Northwestern said that ‘even when federal research funding is restored,’ that would ‘not be enough to reverse the actions we are taking now.’
This settlement with the US government follows similar deals struck with other prestigious schools.
In July, Columbia University announced it would pay out $220million in order to restore federal research money over the White House’s sanctions.
Under the agreement, the Ivy League school will also pay their settlement over the next three years.
The Trump administration pulled the funding because of what it described as the university’s failure to squelch antisemitism on campus during the Israel-Hamas war that began in October 2023.
Columbia then agreed to a series of demands laid out by the Republican administration, including overhauling the university’s student disciplinary process and adopting a new definition of antisemitism.
Other institutions to strike an agreement with the Trump administration include Brown, Cornell and the University of Virginia.
