Washington — Cornell University has reached an agreement with the Trump administration to restore federal funding, with the university to pay $30 million directly to the federal government to put an end to claims by the Justice Department. Cornell will also invest $30 million in U.S. agriculture research.
Cornell is one of the many universities the Department of Education warned it was investigating for potential Title VI violations related to antisemitic harassment and discrimination amid campus protests over the war in Gaza. It was also one of the schools officials were investigating over how it considers race in the admissions process.
“The Trump Administration has secured another transformative commitment from an Ivy League institution to end divisive DEl policies,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement Friday, calling it “a huge win in the fight to restore excellence to American higher education and make our schools the greatest in the world.”
The University of Virginia also recently reached an agreement with the Trump administration that resulted in the administration dropping probes into the university.
Cornell President Michael I. Kotlikoff shared news of the deal Friday in a letter addressed to the Cornell community. He said research funding will be “immediately restored” after more than $250 million in federal funding interruptions since April, which he said “disrupted the research of faculty and students across all campuses.”
He noted, “The resolution is explicit that Cornell’s agreement to these terms is not an admission of wrongdoing.”
In return for the payments, to be made over three years, the federal government agreed to close all investigations and reviews into Cornell.
“Cornell has not been found in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in any of the investigations or compliance reviews of the university’s program,” Kotlikoff’s letter said. “The government has further agreed to restore terminated federal grants, release all withheld funds for active grants, and consider Cornell fully eligible for new grants and funding awards, without disadvantage or preference.”
Cornell also agreed to provide the government with “relevant anonymized admissions data for statistical analyses,” including data on race, grade point averages and performance on standardized tests. It agreed to utilize Justice Department resources for anti-discrimination training and will conduct annual surveys on the campus climate for students.
“Recipients of federal funding must fully adhere to federal civil rights laws and ensure that harmful DEI policies do not discriminate against students,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement.
Kotlikoff said the agreement “explicitly recognizes Cornell’s right to independently establish our policies and procedures, choose whom to hire and admit, and determine what we teach, without intrusive government monitoring or approvals.”
