Cornell University Agrees to Pay $60 Million and Accept Federal Oversight to Restore Research Funding

Cornell University announced a $60 million settlement with the Trump administration to restore more than $250 million in federal research funding that had been withheld amid investigations into alleged civil rights violations related to antisemitism. The agreement requires Cornell to pay $30 million directly to the federal government over three years and invest $30 million in “research to strengthen U.S. agriculture.” In exchange, the settlement closes pending Title VI and Title IX investigations, reinstates all federal grants, and restores eligibility for future funding.

The settlement follows a pattern established by Columbia University’s $221 million deal in August 2025 ($200 million to the federal government plus $21 million for EEOC settlements) and Brown University’s $50 million commitment over 10 years. Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff characterized the agreement as upholding academic freedom while securing critical research funding, but the deal requires Cornell to comply with the Trump administration’s interpretation of civil rights laws on issues involving antisemitism, racial discrimination, and transgender issues—interpretations that have been used to target universities’ diversity programs, student protest rights, and policies protecting LGBTQ students.

The agreement mandates annual campus climate surveys to ensure Jewish student safety and that antisemitism is being addressed, creating ongoing federal oversight mechanisms that extend beyond traditional civil rights enforcement. The financial pressure weaponized federal research funding—historically awarded through competitive peer review based on scientific merit—as a tool to extract both monetary payments and policy concessions from universities. The settlements established a troubling precedent where universities must effectively purchase their way out of politically motivated investigations by paying the federal government and accepting permanent monitoring of campus speech, student activities, and institutional policies, fundamentally compromising university autonomy and academic freedom under threat of financial starvation.