(Photo Jabin Botsford)
President Donald Trump’s administration is planning on freezing $510 million in grants to Brown University while it reviews the institution’s response to anti-semitism and its potential Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies, the Daily Caller has learned.
In February, Trump’s Education Department warned 60 institutions, including Brown University, that it would take action if they “do not fulfill their obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to protect Jewish students on campus.” Due to a previous federal civil rights investigation into the school, Brown is “currently subject to ongoing monitoring,” following an earlier agreement with the Department of Education.
The funds will be paused during the federal government’s review, similar to the administration’s earlier action this week to freeze money to Princeton University while it is also being investigated, an administration official told the Caller.
“The Department is deeply disappointed that Jewish students studying on elite U.S. campuses continue to fear for their safety amid the relentless antisemitic eruptions that have severely disrupted campus life for more than a year. University leaders must do better,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in her February letter.
“U.S. colleges and universities benefit from enormous public investments funded by U.S. taxpayers. That support is a privilege and it is contingent on scrupulous adherence to federal anti-discrimination laws,” she continues.
US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon (C) attends an Education event and signing of executive orders by US President Donald Trump in the East Room of the White house in Washington, DC, March 20, 2025. US President Donald Trump will sign an order March 20, 2025 to start dismantling the Department of Education, fulfilling an election campaign pledge and a long-held dream of American conservatives. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Brown is the latest institution to have it’s funding eyed for a freeze by the administration. On Monday, the administration paused $210 million in funds to Princeton University as it investigates antisemitism on campus, an official told the Caller.
The investigation opened against Princeton dates back to Biden. Biden’s Department of Education opened an investigation in 2024 following a Civil Rights complaint from Zachary Marschall, the editor-in-chief of the conservative website Campus Reform. Marschall alleges in his complaint that the university failed to respond to campus anti-Semitism. The complaint alleges that at an Oct. 25, 2023, walkout in which students supported Palestine, they chanted “Brick by brick, wall by wall, apartheid has got to fall.”
SCOOP: The Trump admin is pausing about $210 million in funding to Princeton University, an administration official tells the @DailyCaller.
The funds are being paused while the admin investigates antisemitism on campus. The decision is not the culmination of the investigation,…
— Reagan Reese (@reaganreese_) April 1, 2025
The admin recently pulled about $175,000,000 from the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) after it allowed men to compete in women’s sports. Similarly, the admin pulled $400 million in federal funding from Columbia University which then yielded to several of the ED’s demands relating to how the school handles antisemitism complaints on campus.
