The settlement with Northwestern was the second-highest payout since the Trump administration began investigating anti-Semitism at academic institutions, according to the New York Times.
Northwestern University will pay $75 million over the next three years to the US Treasury Department, which will close investigations into campus antisemitism, the institution announced on Friday.
The institution’s payment also restores its federal funding, which amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars, according to reports.
“Today’s settlement marks another victory in the Trump Administration’s fight to ensure that American educational institutions protect Jewish students and put merit first,” said US Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The settlement with Northwestern was the second-highest payout since the Trump administration began investigating anti-Semitism at academic institutions, according to the New York Times.
The institution also agreed to review its admission processes and develop training for international students.
Banners hang from the fence outside Northwestern University during a pro-Palestinian protest, Evanston, Illinois, April 27, 2024. (Credit: Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu via Getty Images/JTA)
Northwestern decides to pay the US federal government
Northwestern Interim President Henry Bienen explained in a statement that the settlement agreement will allow the university to “retain full control over hiring, admissions and curriculum as part of the agreement.”
“As an imperative for the negotiation of this agreement, we had several hard red lines that we refused to cross: We do not give up any control over who we hire, who we admit as students, what our faculty teach, or how our faculty teach. I would not have signed this agreement without provisions that ensure this is the case,” wrote Bienen.
“The Northwest rules the Northwest. Period.”
This comes after the university announced a hiring freeze, cutbacks, layoffs, and changes to programs and benefits to make up for its budget shortfall due to the federal funding freeze. Amidst the fallout for the anti-Semitism investigation, former Northwestern University President Michael Schill has resigned.
The Trump administration’s controversial fight against campus antisemitism
Earlier this month, a federal judge indefinitely barred the Trump administration from imposing a fine of more than $1 billion against the University of California system for failures to address campus antisemitism.
Calling the powerful arsenal of the UC system administration “coercive and retaliatory,” US District Judge Rita Lin in San Francisco ruled that federal investigators failed to follow standard protocol for Title VI civil rights investigations.
Lin’s preliminary injunction comes as the UC system continues to negotiate a planned settlement with the administration related to anti-Semitism investigations.
In July, Columbia University agreed to a $200 million settlement that resolves the anti-Semitism investigation that the Trump administration pursued against the institution.
Cornell University agreed to a $30 million fine to end the investigations, while Brown University agreed to address women’s sports, anti-Semitism, admissions practices, and to donate $50 million to workforce development programs.