Cornell University reached an agreement with the Trump administration to end investigations and restore research funding for the private school.
Nov. 7 Cornell University on Friday reached an agreement with the Trump administration to allocate $60 million that would end government investigations and restore several hundred million dollars in research funding for the private school.
Cornell has now joined four other elite universities in making deals.
The allegations stem from accusations of anti-Semitism and admissions discrimination. Cornell, located in Ithaca, N.Y., settled after Brown University, Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Virginia.
Cornell reached the deal with the Department of Justice, Department of Education and Department of Health and Human Services that «will protect Cornell’s students from violations of federal civil rights laws, including from discrimination based on race, sex, or national origin, and promote America’s hardworking farming and rural communities», according to a DOJ news release.
The Ivy League school agreed to pay a $30 million fine and to invest another $30 million for programs to improve efficiency and lower costs in agriculture and farming. Cornell is a land-grant school that conducts agricultural research. The money will be spread out over three years.
The Trump administration froze more than $1 billion in research funding at the school.
Cornell’s president, Michael Kotlikoff, during his State of the University address in September, said officials didn’t know how the government reached that figure.
He said Cornell had accounted for «nearly $250 million in canceled or unpaid research funds.»
Kotlikoff had said he didn’t want the government to «dictate our institution’s policies.»
«The months of stop-work orders, grant terminations and funding freezes have stalled cutting-edge research, upended lives and careers, and threatened the future of academic programs at Cornell», he said in a statement to the Cornell community.
