Cornell became the fifth university to reach a settlement agreement with the Trump administration on Friday, agreeing to a mix of financial and policy concessions to restore federal funding and dismiss civil rights lawsuits.
The Sun compared Cornell’s numerical and policy agreements to the four earlier deals struck at Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, Brown University and the University of Virginia.
By the Numbers
Columbia’s deal was the first reached and remains the most crushing, with the university seeing a $200 million fine to be paid over three years. Columbia will also pay $21 million to a class claimant fund to directly compensate Columbia employees who experienced antisemitism at the university since Oct. 7, 2023.
Cornell agreed to pay $30 million to the federal government and invest an additional $30 million into research to strengthen U.S. agriculture over the next three years, marking the second-highest payment to the federal government and overall settlement amount thus far.
Brown’s deal does not include any payments to the federal government, but instead commits $50 million over the next decade to Rhode Island workforce development programs.
UPenn and UVA’s settlements do not include financial concessions.
By the Policies
The five universities that have reached settlements agreed to significant policy and financial concessions and have since seen their federal funding restored.
Cornell agreed to include guidelines released by the Department of Justice on July 29 as training material for faculty and staff. The guidelines state that race-based scholarships, hiring and DEI initiatives, as well as transgender male athletes, constitute “unlawful practices.” The University also committed to sending anonymized undergraduate admissions data to the federal government on a quarterly basis. In addition, Cornell affirmed that they would conduct annual surveys to evaluate the campus climate, including the climate for Jewish students.
A clause of the agreement states that Cornell will certify to the federal government their compliance with the settlement each quarter.
In Columbia’s settlement, the university pledged to follow laws banning race-based decisions in hiring and admissions and committed to appointing a vice provost to oversee its Middle Eastern Studies Department. The university also committed to restricting protests by enforcing “strict rules against disruptive protests,” prohibiting masked protests and maintaining trained security officers and cooperation with the New York Police Department, according to the White House.
Similar to Cornell, Columbia also agreed to provide data on its admissions process, including students’ race, GPA and standardized test scores to the federal government.
However, unlike Cornell, Columbia will also share “relevant data” with the U.S. government on its international students and will “strengthen oversight” of its international student population by “assessing applicants’ reasons for wishing to study in the U.S.,” according to the White House. An independent monitor was established to oversee the Columbia settlement’s implementation and report to the government on its progress every six months.
While Penn did not agree to a financial concession, the school announced on July 1 that it would limit the participation of transgender athletes in sports, complying with a pair of Trump administration executive orders. The deal ended an investigation by the Department of Education into transgender woman’s participation on Penn’s women’s swim team.
Brown struck an agreement with the Trump administration on July 30, which includes adopting the Trump administration’s definition of “male” and “female” for housing and athletics and “tak[ing] steps to improve the campus climate for Jewish students and combat anti-Semitism,” according to the White House.
UVA, the first public university to sign a settlement agreement with the federal government, negotiated the drop of several discrimination investigations with minimal concessions. However, UVA, similar to Cornell, also agreed to affirm the importance of the DOJ’s July 29 guidelines.
Julia Senzon ’26 and Benjamin Leynse ’27 contributed writing.
