The White House says Cornell University’s $1 billion and Northwestern University’s $790 million in federal funds have been blocked.
The US government has frozen more than $1 billion in federal funds from Cornell University and about $790 million for Northwestern University to investigate alleged civil rights violations, according to the White House.
The development will block the threats managed by US President Donald Trump, and will block federal funding for schools through protests on Palestinian campuses and other issues such as diversity, equity, comprehensive programs and transgender policy.
The White House confirmed that funds would be suspended late Tuesday night, but no details were provided as to what they would entail or what was given to the school.
An anonymous official told Reuters that the suspended funds mostly include grants and contracts with the federal sectors of health, education, agriculture and defense.
In a statement, Cornell said he received more than 75 suspension work orders from the Department of Defense early on Tuesday. “Deeply important to American defense, cybersecurity and health,” but they had not received information confirming $1 billion in the otherwise frozen grant.
“We are actively seeking information from federal officials to learn more about the basis for these decisions,” said a statement from the university’s president, Michael Kotrykov and other top school staff.
Northwestern said it was aware of media reports about the funding freeze, but it had not received official notices from the government and cooperated with the investigation.
“The federal funding that Northwestern receives will promote innovative, life-saving research, like recent developments by Northwestern researchers, the world’s smallest pacemaker, and research that will drive the fight against Alzheimer’s. This type of research is now at risk,” a Northwestern spokesman told Reuters.
Last month, the Trump administration wrote to 60 universities, including Cornell and Northwestern, saying it could bring enforcement action if the review determines that the schools were unable to stop what they call anti-Semitism.
Columbia University, the epicenter of last year’s pro-Palestinian campus protests, cancelled its $400 million funding last month.
The university then agreed to several important changes in which the Trump administration called for consultations on funding recovery. Some of the decision to succumb to these demands has been criticized as falling into academic freedom by some faculty members and free speech groups to save ongoing research projects in its lab and medical centers.
Last week, the US government also published a $9 billion review of federal grants and contracts with Harvard University, and has since listed the conditions that must be met to receive federal money. Princeton University said last week that the government had frozen dozens of research grants.
US federal agents have also been detaining some foreign student protesters from various campuses in recent weeks, working to deport them. And the government has revoked visas for many foreign students.
Rights advocates raised concerns about Islamophobia and anti-Arab prejudice during the war between Israel and Gaza.
The Trump administration has not announced procedures accordingly.