What happened?:

Brown University agreed to pay $50 million to workforce development organizations in Rhode Island and make several policy changes to have an equal sum of federal funding restored. 

Following the July 30 agreement, Brown President Christina Paxson said in a community message that the Ivy League institution’s top priority in negotiating with the Trump administration was “remaining true to our academic mission, our core values and who we are as a community at Brown.”

In justifying the move, Paxon wrote, “A federal funding freeze that began in April posed enormous challenges for Brown’s research mission and financial sustainability, and if left unaddressed, would have undermined our ability to conduct life-saving research and to offer our students a world-class education.”

Brown officials have said the deal lessened the financial impact from the federal funding disruption. But the university’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors slammed the Trump administration’s tactics as “blackmail” and criticized the deal. 

Among other issues, the faculty group pointed to the deal’s mandatory campus climate survey, gender definitions aligned with President Donald Trump’s executive orders, compliance measures such as visits from the U.S. Department of Education’s civil rights office, and the singling out of students of Jewish ancestry for protection from harassment without addressing the rights of students of other religious, racial and national backgrounds.  

Partial conditions for the institution:

• $50 million in grants over 10 years to Rhode Island workforce development organizations of Brown’s choice.
• Provide the government with anonymized admissions data, including the race, "color," GPA and standardized test scores of applicants.
• Agree not to provide gender-affirming care, including reassignment surgery and hormone blockers, to minors. 
• Adopt the administration’s definition of “male” and “female” — which is based on reproductive cells at conception — for athletics and women-focused events and programs.
• Provide single-sex housing and restrooms using the Trump administration’s definition of gender while also maintaining gender-inclusive facilities.
• Conduct a climate survey, including on the experiences of students of Jewish ancestry.
• Take “significant, proactive, effective steps” to combat antisemitism and support a “a thriving Jewish community,” including through enhanced security for the Brown RISD Hillel student organization. 
• Report data on national origin-based harassment complaints at Brown to federal agencies. 
• Commit to not using quotas or diversity targets in its operations. 
• Submit to visits, interviews and data requests from the civil rights offices of the Education Department and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to ensure Brown is fulfilling the agreement. 

In exchange for:

• Restoration of Brown's medical and health research funding and ability to compete for grants. 
• Reimbursement of over $50 million in unpaid federal grant funding.
• Closure of open federal antidiscrimination probes, with no findings of wrongdoing.
• Formal affirmation that the government cannot “dictate Brown's curriculum or the content of academic speech.” 

What happened?:

Columbia University agreed to pay $221 million to the federal government and make policy changes in exchange for having most of its federal grant funding restored. 

Claire Shipman, Columbia’s acting president since March, framed the deal as safeguarding the university's independence and necessary to protect its "status as a world-leading research institution." Shipman also noted that the agreement does not give the federal government control over its academic, admissions or hiring decisions.

But higher ed experts and academic freedom advocates condemned the deal, arguing the university made concessions following significant coercion by the Trump administration and set a bad precedent for the sector.

Indeed, U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said soon thereafter that the federal government hopes the agreement with Columbia will be a “template for other universities around the country."

Partial conditions for institution:

• $200 million payment to the federal government over three years.
• $21 million payment to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to establish a fund to compensate Columbia employees over claims of antisemitism.
• Designate an independent monitor, chosen by federal and university officials, to oversee Columbia's compliance with the deal. 
• Supply data for all applicants to the federal government, broken down by race, "color," GPA and standardized test performance.
• Create training “to socialize all students to campus norms and values.” 
• Reduce Columbia’s financial dependence on international students.
• Ask international applicants why they wish to study in the U.S. and ensure that all students "are committed to the longstanding traditions of American universities."
• Assign a university administrator to review academic programming focused on regional areas, starting with the Middle East.
• Create a student liaison position focused on student complaints related to antisemitism.
• Maintain a standing police force of at least 36 officers with arrest powers.

In exchange for:

• Restoration of a “vast majority” of $400 million in canceled federal grants.
• Restoration of Columbia’s eligibility for future federal grants.
• An end to the federal civil rights investigations and compliance reviews opened by the U.S. departments of Health and Human Services and Justice, the EEOC and the Education Department.
• No admission of wrongdoing in those investigations.

What happened?:

The Trump administration restored $175 million in suspended federal funding to the University of Pennsylvania after the Ivy League institution agreed to a range of federal demands. 

The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights on Feb. 6 opened an investigation into Penn over Lia Thomas’ participation on the Ivy League university’s women’s swimming team. 

While competing for Penn, Thomas became the first openly transgender athlete to win a Division I title for her victory in 2022 in the 500-yard freestyle. That was the year Thomas graduated from Penn and the last in which she competed as a college athlete. 

The Education Department determined in April that Penn had violated Title IX, which bars federally funded colleges and K-12 schools from discriminating on the basis of sex. 

The Education Department's investigation came three years after Thomas competed for Penn and just a day after President Donald Trump signed an executive order that threatened to pull federal funding from colleges that allow transgender women to compete on women’s sports teams. 

Trump’s executive orders define a person's sex based on their reproductive cells at conception. Medical experts have criticized that definition for being out of step with scientific understanding and have noted that sexual differentiation occurs weeks after conception.

Shortly after Trump signed the order, the NCAA — which previously allowed transgender women to compete on women’s sports teams under certain circumstances — changed its athletics participation policies to align with the president's directive. Penn has said it has stayed in compliance with NCAA policies as they’ve changed. 

While the Trump administration hailed the agreement as a victory for women’s sports, some civil rights groups criticized the deal. 

“The American people deserve a White House that is laser focused on making sure every student thrives,” Brandon Wolf, national press secretary for Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement at the time to The New York Times. “Instead, this administration is obsessed with making young people’s lives harder and scapegoating transgender people so they can attack independent institutions.

Partial conditions for the institution: 

• Give swimming records, titles or other recognitions to cisgender women who lost to transgender women. 
• Issue a public statement saying it will comply with the Trump administration’s understanding of Title IX, including by barring transgender women from competing on women’s sports teams or using women’s locker rooms and bathrooms. 
• Adopt definitions of “male” and “female” that align with Trump’s executive orders.
• Send a personal apology letter to “each impacted female swimmer.” 

In exchange for: 

• The Education Department closing the Title IX case. 
• Although not included in the agreement’s text, the Trump administration restored $175 million in suspended federal grants and contracts shortly after the deal was struck.