Cornell University announced this On Friday, he reached an agreement with the Trump administration to restore hundreds of millions of dollars in research funds that the government cut earlier this year.
The university will directly pay the federal government $30 million over three years “as a condition of ending pending claims brought against the university,” university President Michael Kotlikoff said in a letter to students and faculty. Cornell will also invest $30 million over three years in “research to strengthen U.S. agriculture” and benefit American farmers, he said.
In April, the Trump administration withheld $250 million in federal research funding from the university, accusing Cornell of civil rights violations.
“The long-term research partnership between Cornell and the federal government is critical to advancing the university’s core mission and our ongoing contributions to the health, welfare, and economic and military strength of the nation,” Kotlikoff said. “This agreement renews that partnership while reaffirming the university’s commitment to the principles of academic freedom, independence and institutional autonomy that have been integral to our excellence since our founding.”
Kotlikoff added that “agreement to these terms is not an admission of wrongdoing” and that the university did not violate civil rights law.
White House Assistant Press Secretary Liz Houston called the agreement a victory for the Trump administration.
“President Trump has once again brought great benefits to American students through the Cornell deal,” Huston wrote in an email. “Under the president’s sound leadership, academic excellence, merit and accountability will continue to be restored at all American universities.”
Cornell became the latest Ivy League school to announce an agreement with the federal government in recent months.
In July, Columbia University said it would pay the federal government $200 million to rebuild $400 million in federal research grants the Trump administration fired the university earlier this year.
Brown University made a similar deal Days later, the administration promised to pay $50 million in grants over 10 years to workforce development organizations in Rhode Island.
In all three cases, Ivy League schools, staffed by some of the world's best lawyers, chose to settle rather than challenge the Trump administration in court.
The Trump administration has stripped funding from elite US universities, arguing they did not do enough to quell anti-Semitism in student protests against the war in Gaza last year.
At the same time, the administration tried to force universities to get rid of diversity programs and what it called liberal bias.
In addition to issuing the payment, Columbia University agreed to a long list of demands by the Trump administration, which included changes to the admissions process, staffing and efforts to promote diversity. And in July the University of Pennsylvania agreed to ban transgender women from attending compete on women's sports teams after facing pressure from the administration.
This developing story. Please stay tuned for updates.
