The White House froze $790 million of the just over $1 billion Northwestern receives in federal funding on Tuesday, affecting research tied to the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Education and Health and Human Services.
In an email sent two hours after The New York Times first announced the federal funding freeze, University President Michael Schill informed students that the administration is “working closely with members of our Board, deans and our administration to assess the impact of these actions.”
Northwestern joins universities such as Cornell, Brown, Columbia, Harvard, University of Pennsylvania and Princeton in facing threats to federal funding. Many of these same universities are currently facing federal civil rights investigations. The Education Department and the Department of Justice is currently investigating Northwestern for alleged Title VI violations tied to DEI practices.
The University is also under investigation for antisemitism due to complaints made in the wake of pro-Palestinian protests last spring. Northwestern is one of 10 universities the Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism plans to visit in the aftermath of the protests, with the task force citing “allegations that the schools may have failed to protect Jewish students and faculty members from unlawful discrimination.”
Northwestern is also one of five universities that the U.S. Department of Education announced it would investigate for alleged “widespread antisemitic harassment.” However, the recent gutting of the Department of Education creates uncertainty around the status of this investigation. Regardless, the government doesn’t have to worry about Northwestern impeding federal investigations.
“The University has fully cooperated with investigations by both the Department of Education and Congress,” Northwestern spokesperson Jon Yates said in an email sent on April 9th.
Before the announcement of the federal funding freeze, Northwestern was already complying with Trump’s executive orders. This compliance included restricting where and when students can protest, streamlining the disciplinary process for students and faculties, and removing mentions of diversity, equity and inclusion from department webpages. The removals include purging DEI resources from the “About” overview for schools such as SESP and The Graduate School, the last of the University’s schools to remove their DEI page. The Graduate School has also replaced its Office of Diversity and Inclusion with the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral success.
Northwestern’s ready acquiescence to Trump’s various executive orders attacking education has allowed the federal government to control campus policies and in turn failed at protecting student interests. The disciplinary process enforced by the Office of Community Standards has been used to punish students for exercising their First Amendment right to protest and assemble. Now, students must also worry about their research opportunities.
“Federal funds that Northwestern receives drive innovative and life-saving research … This type of research is now at jeopardy,” Yates said.
The research at risk due to the freeze is likely to impact the progression of healthcare devices, as research such as developing the world’s smallest pacemaker and the fight against Alzheimer’s disease will have to be re-evaluated.
The federal funding freeze will also impact communities in Chicago and across the country that benefit from research conducted at Northwestern, including the development of better middle school math curricula, medicine, cell phone batteries and cleaning up coal plant emissions.
The universities whose funding has been targeted by the federal government are some of the wealthiest and most elite universities in the country. With the financial resources necessary to supplement the lost funding, they are capable of hiring lawyers to combat the federal government’s attempts at controlling the policies of private institutions.
Only time will tell how Northwestern utilizes its vast resources, including its $14.3 billion endowment. The endowment, which is made up of private donations meant to provide an “unparalleled education” for students, provides the University with the private capital necessary to stand up to the Trump Administration’s demands. Publications like Vox have called for elite universities to use their endowments to “stand up on behalf of millions of students … and defend the values of intellectual freedom.”
