Northwestern University, a highly ranked private school in Evanston, Ill., became the latest school to settle a federal probe over alleged Jew-hatred and pay a large sum of money without admitting wrongdoing.
The U.S. Departments of Education, Justice and Health and Human Services stated on Friday that Northwestern had agreed to pay $75 million to the U.S. Treasury through 2028.
The settlement “marks another victory in the Trump administration’s fight to ensure that American educational institutions protect Jewish students and put merit first,” stated Pamela Bondi, the U.S. attorney general. “Institutions that accept federal funds are obligated to follow civil rights law. We are grateful to Northwestern for negotiating this historic deal.”
Harmeet Dhillon, the U.S. assistant attorney general for civil rights, stated that “universities that receive federal funding have a responsibility to comply with the law, including protecting against racial discrimination and antisemitism,” and Linda McMahon, the U.S. education secretary, called the agreement “a huge win for current and future Northwestern students, alumni, faculty and for the future of American higher education.”
Henry Bienen, the interim Northwestern president after Michael Schill quit in early September, stated that the settlement “reserved Northwestern’s unique environment for research that advances human understanding, improves lives in myriad ways and makes us one of the world’s great universities.”
“We expect federal funds to resume flowing within days and be fully restored within 30 days,” Bienen stated. “This is not an agreement the university enters into lightly, but one that was made based on institutional values.” He added that the school’s red lines were that “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,” he stated. “Northwestern runs Northwestern. Period.”
In a question-and-answer page on the school’s website, Northwestern added that the “agreement explicitly states the university admits no wrongdoing.”
“The board of trustees and university leadership weighed Northwestern’s set of very difficult options and determined this agreement was the best way not only to restore federal funding but also to safeguard our institution and preserve our values and principles,” it said.
Under the agreement, the federal government, which had frozen some $790 million in funds to the school in April, agrees to close its civil rights probes of the school over Jew-hatred and hiring practices and to pay out overdue grants and consider the school eligible for future ones.
The $75 million payment, according to Northwestern, is “not an admission of guilt but simply a condition of the agreement.” The school also agrees to create a special board committee to ensure compliance with the deal, to provide anonymized admissions statistics to the government to show compliance with bars on race-based admissions decisions, to provide all-female housing and gym facilities “defined on the basis of sex” and to train international students about the “norms of a campus dedicated to inquiry and open debate.”
Northwestern also agreed to “terminate the 2024 Deering Meadow agreement” that it established with anti-Israel protesters who formed an encampment and to “reaffirm our commitment to the steps the university has taken to protect Jewish members of our community.”
Northwestern said that it will continue participating in the “scholars at risk” program, which “has brought students from war-torn regions, such as Ukraine and Afghanistan, to Evanston.” (It wasn’t clear what impact, if any, the Trump administration’s ban on visas for Afghans would mean for that program.)
The school also said that it reversing the 2024 Deering Meadow agreement meant that the “temporary spaces previously designated for the Middle Eastern and North African Student Association and the Muslim Cultural Student Association is no longer available for either organization.”
“MENA, McSA and all student organizations are encouraged to continue engaging with Campus Life and Norris to identify available reservable spaces that support their programming and community needs,” it said.
It added, in response to a question about renovation of a house Middle East, North African and Muslim students, that “the university remains committed to fostering inclusive spaces and will continue to support student belonging and engagement through existing campus facilities and organizations, while partnering with alumni to explore off-campus, privately owned locations that could further support community connection and programming.”
