Over the last few weeks, the Trump Administration entered into several agreements with higher education institutions, including Columbia University, Brown University, and UCLA, to settle allegations of antisemitism and discrimination on campus. We summarize the agreements below, and you can read a more detailed description in LCW’s Special Bulletin.
In March 2025, the Trump Administration froze more than $400 million in Columbia University’s federal funding, citing allegations that Columbia failed to respond to antisemitism on campus. In May, the U.S. Departments of Education (DOE) and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) found that Columbia had violated Title VI by acting with deliberate indifference to student-on-student harassment of Jewish students.
Columbia agreed to pay the federal government $200 million and an additional $21 million to settle an EEOC investigation into workplace harassment based on religion. Columbia agreed to make changes to address antisemitism; uphold merit-based admissions and hiring not based on protected categories; and update disciplinary policies, including prohibiting demonstrations and protests inside academic buildings and limiting the use of masks or face coverings during protests.
Brown University reached a voluntary agreement to restore federal funding and resolve three pending federal agency reviews. Brown agreed to adopt federally defined gender classifications in policies, programs, and facilities usage; not provide gender reassignment surgery or prescribe puberty blockers or hormones for transgender minors; address antisemitism and advance Judaic Studies; and maintain merit-based admissions. Brown also committed $50 million over ten years to workforce development organizations in Rhode Island.
UCLA settled a private lawsuit brought by Jewish students and a Jewish professor, which the Administration later joined, by agreeing to pay $6 million. UCLA promised to ensure Jewish students, faculty, and staff have full and equal access to programs, activities, and facilities, and to develop policies preventing protestors from blocking such access. The Administration then froze $339 million in UCLA’s federal research grants and issued a Notice of Violation of Title VI and the 14th Amendment, by finding that UCLA had acted with deliberate indifference in creating a hostile educational environment for Jewish and Israeli students. This suggests that the federal government may seek to broaden the scope of UCLA’s concessions beyond the terms of the current settlement.