Brown University says it reached deal with US government to restore federal funding

WASHINGTON

Brown University said Wednesday that it reached a voluntary agreement with the US government to restore funding for the university's federally sponsored medical and health sciences research and to resolve three open reviews.

The agreement will reinstate payments for active research grants and restore the university's ability to compete for new federal grants and contracts, it said in a statement.

Brown President Christina H. Paxson said the Ivy League school agreed to pay $50 million to workforce development organizations in Rhode Island over 10 years as part of the deal.

"The University's foremost priority throughout discussions with the government was remaining true to our academic mission, our core values and who we are as a community at Brown,” Paxson said.

"This is reflected in key provisions of the resolution agreement preserving our academic independence, as well as a commitment to pay $50 million in grants over 10 years to workforce development organizations in Rhode Island, which is aligned with our service and community engagement mission."

The announcement follows a landmark agreement in which Columbia University committed to $221 million in settlement payments to the Trump administration.

As part of the agreement, Columbia will be subject to federal monitoring of its admissions and hiring practices and will share information about some foreign students with immigration officials.

One major difference in the Brown agreement is that the university’s funds will bypass the federal government.

“We stand solidly behind commitments we repeatedly have affirmed to protect all members of our community from harassment and discrimination, and we protect the ability of our faculty and students to study and learn academic subjects of their choosing, free from censorship,” Paxson said.

"We applaud the agreement’s unequivocal assertion that the agreement does not give the government the ‘authority to dictate Brown’s curriculum or the content of academic speech',” she added.