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 payout 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,” US Attorney-General Pam Bondi said.
The deal with Northwestern was the second-highest payout since US President Donald Trump’s administration began investigating antisemitism in academic institutions.
The institution also agreed to review its admission processes and develop training for international students.
Northwestern decides to pay out US federal government
Northwestern interim president Henry Bienen explained in a statement that the settlement agreement will allow the university to “keep full control over hiring, admissions, and curriculum as part of the deal.”
“As an imperative to the negotiation of this agreement, we had several hard red lines we refused to cross: We would not relinquish any control over whom we hire, whom we admit as students, what our faculty teach, or how our faculty teach. I would not have signed this agreement without provisions ensuring that is the case,” Bienen wrote.
“Northwestern runs Northwestern. Period.”
This comes after the university announced a hiring freeze, cutbacks, layoffs, and program and benefits changes to cope with its budget shortfall due to the federal funding freeze. Amid the fallout from the antisemitism investigation, former Northwestern University president Michael Schill left his position.
Trump administration's controversial fight against campus antisemitism
Earlier this month, a federal judge indefinitely barred the Trump administration from levying a fine in excess of $1 billion against the University of California system for failures in addressing campus antisemitism.
Calling the administration’s strong-arming of the UC system “coercive and retaliatory,” US District Judge Rita Lin in San Francisco ruled that federal investigators had failed to follow standard protocol for Title VI civil rights investigations.
Lin’s preliminary injunction came as the UC system continues to negotiate a planned settlement with the administration related to antisemitism investigations.
In July, Columbia University agreed to a $200 million settlement that would resolve the antisemitism 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, antisemitism, and admissions practices and to donate $50 million to workforce development programs.