Trump administration halts $1 billion in federal funding for Cornell,
$790 million for Northwestern
[April 09, 2025]
WASHINGTON (AP) — More than $1 billion in federal funding for Cornell
University and around $790 million for Northwestern University have been
frozen while the government investigates alleged civil rights violations
at both schools, the White House says.
It's part of a broader push to use government funding to get major
academic institutions to comply with President Donald Trump ’s political
agenda. The White House confirmed the funding pauses late Tuesday night,
but offered no further details on what it entails, or what grants to the
schools are being affected.
The moves come as the Trump administration has increasingly begun using
governmental grant funding as a spigot to try and influence campus
policy — previously cutting off money to schools including Columbia
University and the University of Pennsylvania.
That has left universities across the country struggling to navigate
cuts to grants for research institutions.
In a statement, Cornell said it had received more than 75 stop work
orders earlier Tuesday from the Defense Department related to research
“profoundly significant to American national defense, cybersecurity, and
health” but that it had not otherwise received any information
confirming $1 billion in frozen grants.
“We are actively seeking information from federal officials to learn
more about the basis for these decisions,” said the statement from
Michael I. Kotlikoff, the university president, and other top school
officials.
In an email to the Northwestern community, university president Michael
Schill said it had not been notified by the federal government of the
cuts, according to The Daily Northwestern, the campus newspaper.
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A woman walks by a Cornell University sign on the Ivy League
school's campus in Ithaca, New York, on Friday, Jan. 14, 2022. (AP
Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)
Last month, the Education Department sent letters to more than 60
universities — including Cornell and Northwestern — warning of
“potential enforcement actions if they do not fulfill their obligations”
under federal law to “protect Jewish students on campus, including
uninterrupted access to campus facilities and educational
opportunities.”
The Trump administration has threatened to cut off federal funding for
universities allowing alleged antisemitism to go unchecked at campus
protests last year against Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza — accusations
the universities have denied.
Officials have already singled out Columbia University, making an
example of it with threats to withhold $400 million in federal funds.
The administration repeatedly accused Columbia of failing to stop
antisemitism during protests against Israel that began at the New York
City university last spring and quickly spread to other campuses — a
characterization disputed by those involved in the demonstrations.
As a precondition for restoring that money — along with billions more in
future grants — the Republican administration demanded unprecedented
changes in university policy.
Columbia’s decision to bow to those demands, in part to salvage ongoing
research projects at its labs and medical center, has been criticized by
some faculty and free speech groups as capitulating to an intrusion on
academic freedom.
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