Brown University Makes a Deal With the White House to Restore Funding

The deal, which will require Brown to spend $50 million, comes after two other Ivy League schools negotiated with the Trump administration to restore millions in research dollars.


The campus of Brown University in Providence, R.I. Brian Snyder/Reuters

By Alan BlinderMichael C. BenderSharon Otterman and Anemona Hartocollis
July 30, 2025

Brown University, besieged by the Trump administration’s pressure campaign against the country’s most elite schools, struck a deal with the government on Wednesday, becoming the third Ivy League university in a month to reach an agreement with the White House.

The agreement, a copy of which Brown made public, calls for the university to make $50 million in payments to state work force development programs over a decade and requires Brown to comply with the Trump administration’s vision on matters like transgender athletes and “merit-based” admissions policies.

The university, which is in Providence, R.I., secured a pledge from the government that the deal would not be used “to dictate Brown’s curriculum or the content of academic speech.” The Trump administration is also required to restore millions of dollars in federal research funding that it had blocked in recent months, and Brown avoided the naming of an independent monitor to oversee the deal.

Government officials had accused the school of harboring antisemitism after it became the site of pro-Palestinian protests over the war in Gaza. Brown denied any wrongdoing and hoped that the agreement would end months of turmoil. But it also opened the school to charges that it had capitulated to the Trump administration.

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“We really look forward to engaging with this administration on matters of policy,” [Ted Mitchell, the president of the American Council on Education] said. “But this isn’t policy. This is simple extortion and deal-making, which has no place in a democracy.”

Alan Blinder is a national correspondent for The Times, covering education.

Michael C. Bender is a Times correspondent in Washington.

Sharon Otterman is a Times reporter covering higher education, public health and other issues facing New York City.

Anemona Hartocollis is a national reporter for The Times, covering higher education.

A version of this article appears in print on July 31, 2025, Section A, Page 18 of the New York edition with the headline: Brown University Reaches an Agreement With the White House to Restore Funds. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe