US freezes $1 billion in funding for Cornell

Jacob Mack

Ithaca Journal

USA TODAY NETWORK

The Trump administration has frozen over $1 billion in funding for Cornell University amid civil rights investigations of several New York Colleges by the U.S. Department of Education.

'The money was frozen in connection with several ongoing, credible, and concerning Title VI investigations,' members of the administration told Fox News.

The decision comes after funding to the tune of $3.3 billion was cut from other Ivy League universities including Harvard, Colombia, Brown, Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania.

Cornell officials, however, say they are still waiting on information.

University President Michael Kotlikoff, Provost Kativa Bala and Provost for Medical Affairs, Robert Harrington said Cornell has not yet received information to fully confirm the freeze according to an April 8 university statement.

'Cornell is aware of media reports suggesting that more than $1 billion in federal grants have been frozen,' they said. 'While we have not received information that would confirm this figure, earlier today Cornell received more than 75 stop work orders from the Department of Defense related to research that is profoundly significant to American national defense, cybersecurity, and health.'

The university is seeking information from federal officers to learn more about the basis for the decision, the statement said.

'Cornell is a land-grant university that serves New York state and the nation,' the statement said. 'We are committed to working with our federal partners to continue the contributions made by our scientists and scholars.'

Affected grants could include research into new materials for jet engines, propulsion systems, large-scale information networks, robotics, superconductors, space and satellite communications and cancer research.

Cornell was among 60 colleges to receive a letter from the state education department in March, notifying them of a state investigation.

The letter threatened enforcement actions against schools that do not 'fulfil their obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to protect Jewish students on campus.'

Prior investigations

Cornell was also investigated for Title IV violations under the Biden administration in November 2023, which first put the university on edge at the chance of losing at least $750,000 in federal funding.

The investigation came as Cornell reels from the aftershock of the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, after Gov. Kathy Hochul addressed threats of violence at a Jewish dining hall on campus and the university received national media attention in October 2023 for associate professor Russel J. Rickford’s self-proclaimed 'horrible choice of words' at a pro-Palestinian rally in the Ithaca Commons, where he stated he was 'exhilarated' by Hamas’s attack on Gaza less than 10 days earlier.

Since then, executive orders signed by Trump forced a Cornell student to leave the country willingly or be deported by federal officials.

The latest investigation began in March, two weeks after Cornell University received a notice on Feb 14. that it would potentially lose funding if they did not comply with Title IV regulations within 14 days.