Agreement to Restore Federal Funds
Dear members of the Northwestern community,
Earlier today, the University reached an agreement with the federal government to restore hundreds of millions of dollars in critical research funding.
The agreement, which you can read here, resolves investigations by the U.S. Departments of Justice, Education, and Health and Human Services; allows Northwestern to resume drawing down funds for existing and approved grants; and ensures our researchers remain eligible for future grants. It also ends a deeply painful and disruptive period in our university’s history.
By reaching this agreement, we preserved Northwestern’s unique environment for research that advances human understanding, improves lives in myriad ways and makes us one of the world’s great universities. I am grateful to our Board of Trustees for recognizing the need to maintain vitally important research activities and making bold decisions to finance those activities since April. At a cost of tens of millions a month, however, that funding was far from a sustainable solution.
We expect federal funds to resume flowing within days and be fully restored within 30 days.
This is not an agreement the University enters into lightly, but one that was made based on institutional values. As an imperative to the negotiation of this agreement, we had several hard red lines we refused to cross: We would not relinquish any control over whom we hire, whom we admit as students, what our faculty teach or how our faculty teach. I would not have signed this agreement without provisions ensuring that is the case.
As the agreement states, “no provision of this agreement, individually or taken together, shall be construed as giving the United States authority to dictate faculty hiring, University hiring, admission decisions, Northwestern’s curriculum, or the content of academic speech and research.”
Northwestern runs Northwestern. Period.
We understand how difficult the past seven months have been since our federal research funding was frozen, and that many of you have felt the impacts deeply and personally. The experience has been grueling, and we appreciate the care and professionalism you have taken as we have navigated this difficult stretch as a community.
Among the details included in the three-year agreement, the federal government agrees to:
- Enable Northwestern to draw down all payments consistent with approved budgets for each grant, including but not limited to the overdue payment on non-terminated grants and contracts.
- Lift any stop-work orders on non-terminated grants and contracts.
- Treat Northwestern as eligible for further grants, contracts and awards, and fairly consider all applications for federal funding the University submits.
- Permanently close all pending investigations or compliance reviews by the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Education regarding Northwestern’s compliance with anti-discrimination laws.
- Permanently close all pending Investigations, compliance reviews or inquiries by the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division regarding Northwestern’s compliance with Title VI’s prohibition against discrimination based on race in admissions. The University has not been found in violation of any laws and expressly denies liability regarding all allegations in the now-closed investigations.
Among the provisions the University agrees to:
- Pay the U.S. Treasury $75 million, over the course of three years. As stated in the agreement, the payment is not an admission of guilt, but simply a condition of the agreement.
- Establish a special committee of the Board of Trustees to ensure compliance with the agreement and have the President and the Chair of the Board certify quarterly the University’s compliance with the agreement.
- Continue compliance with federal anti-discrimination laws. The University already complies with the U.S. Supreme Court decision prohibiting the consideration of race in admissions decisions and has agreed to provide anonymized statistical admissions data to the government, demonstrating our ongoing compliance.
- Adhere to federal Title IX “by providing safe and fair opportunities for women, including single-sex housing for any woman, defined on the basis of sex, who requests such accommodations and all-female sports, locker rooms and showering facilities.”
- Review our international admissions practices and policies and develop training material to socialize international students to the norms of a campus dedicated to inquiry and open debate. The University also will continue to comply with all legal requirements related to the Student and Exchange Visitor (SEVIS) program.
- Terminate the 2024 Deering Meadow agreement.
- Finally, we reaffirm our commitment to the steps the University has taken to protect Jewish members of our community. As outlined in our most recent progress report, reports of discrimination or harassment based on antisemitism have declined since Northwestern rolled out and enforced significant policy changes. We will continue to do whatever we can to ensure that our campuses are safe for every member of the Northwestern community.
I know you will have many questions about this agreement. Again, I encourage you to read the full agreement, which you can find here. A full list of Frequently Asked Questions and answers can be found here, which also includes a short video from me answering the most common questions.
The University’s partnership with the federal government began more than a century ago in 1910, when Northwestern became one of the very first schools in America to receive federal funding, a grant from the U.S. Public Health Service for a study on tuberculosis. In the years since, federal research funding has become a vital part of our University, fueling breakthroughs that have helped our nation establish and maintain innovation leadership and make our federal and higher education partnership the envy of the world. This agreement enables this important partnership to continue.
We must now refocus on what matters most: advancing our mission, upholding the highest standards of academic and institutional excellence, and empowering students and scholars to drive change in the world through research and innovation.
As we move ahead, we will do so with purpose and conviction, speaking boldly for the values that define Northwestern, especially in moments of adversity. We are focused on the future and guided by an understanding of the past, as are all academic pursuits.
I am deeply grateful for your continued partnership, your tireless efforts and your unwavering commitment to the future of Northwestern.