Brown University struck a deal with the Trump administration last week, making several promises — including adopting a definition of sex that excludes transgender people — in exchange for federal funding to be restored.
Brown was one of 60 universities the Department of Education said it was investigating earlier this year. In April, officials blocked $510 million in research funding from Brown over what they called “antisemitism” on campus after robust student demonstrations in support of Palestine. The university has denied violating any federal laws, and the administration’s investigation did not make any determinations.
The administration agreed to drop its probe into the university and said it would restore research grants as a result of the deal reached last Wednesday. President Donald Trump celebrated on Truth Social, writing, “There will be no more Anti-Semitism, or Anti-Christian, or Anti-Anything Else! Woke is officially DEAD at Brown.”
Brown, which is in Rhode Island, agreed to pay $50 million over the next decade to the state’s workforce development program, as well as to remove mentions of race from the admissions process and codify protections for Jewish students.
The school also pledged to implement a series of policies that will change the way transgender students navigate campus, and its commitments go further than those of other universities that have negotiated with the administration.
