by JNS Staff
Linda McMahon, the U.S. secretary of education, stated that it was “another transformative commitment from an Ivy League institution to end divisive DEl policies.”
Cornell University announced on Friday that it had reached a settlement with the Trump administration following a Jew-hatred probe, and an investigation about its admissions policies.
Under the settlement, under which Cornell “expressly denies liability with respect to the subject matter of the investigations,” the private Ithaca, N.Y., school will pay a $30 million fine to the federal government and commits to invest another $30 million in “research programs that will directly benefit U.S. farmers.”
Grants, which the federal government withheld from the school, are restored “effective as of the date of termination of each restored grant,” per the agreement.
“The Trump administration has secured another transformative commitment from an Ivy League institution to end divisive diversity, equity and inclusion policies,” stated Linda McMahon, the U.S. secretary of education. “Thanks to this deal with Cornell and the ongoing work of the Department of Justice, Department of Health and Human Services and the team at the Education Department, U.S. universities are refocusing their attention on merit, rigor and truth-seeking—not ideology.”
“These reforms are a huge win in the fight to restore excellence to American higher education and make our schools the greatest in the world,” McMahon said.
Under the agreement, the university will “continue to conduct annual surveys to evaluate the campus climate for Cornell students, including the climate for students with shared Jewish ancestry.”
Among the questions to be surveyed are whether students “feel welcome at Cornell” and “whether they feel safe reporting antisemitism at Cornell,” as well as whether they think that changes that the school has made since Oct. 7, 2023, have helped the school community. (JNS sought comment from Cornell.)
The school also agreed to report its foreign funding in a timely manner and, as needed, hire legal experts to advise the school on “sanctions enforcement, anti-money laundering and prevention of terrorist financing.”
University president Michael Kotlikoff stated that “since April of this year, Cornell has been subject to more than $250 million in federal funding interruptions, which have disrupted the research of faculty and students across all campuses.” The agreement with the federal government will “immediately restore and continue the university’s research funding,” he stated.
Cornell’s “decades-long research partnership” with the federal government is “critical to advancing the university’s core mission and to our continuing contributions to the nation’s health, welfare and economic and military strength,” Kotlikoff said. “This agreement revives that partnership, while affirming the university’s commitment to the principles of academic freedom, independence and institutional autonomy that, from our founding, have been integral to our excellence.”
The agreement “explicitly recognizes Cornell’s right to independently establish our policies and procedures, choose whom to hire and admit, and determine what we teach, without intrusive government monitoring or approvals,” according to the school president.
“Cornell has not been found in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in any of the investigations or compliance reviews of the university’s programs pending at the Department of Justice, Department of Education or Department of Health and Human Services,” he said. “The government has agreed to close all of these investigations and reviews.”
“Pursuant to the terms of this agreement, the university will invest $30 million over three years in research to strengthen U.S. agriculture and help build even more successful and productive farms,” he wrote. “Cornell will also pay an additional $30 million over three years directly to the United States government as a condition for ending pending claims that have been brought against the university.”
The first sum, which Cornell will invest over three years, is to fund programs that will help farmers “through lower costs of production and enhanced efficiency, including but not limited to programs that incorporate artificial intelligence and robotics, such as digital agriculture and future farming technologies,” per the agreement.
“These additional resources demonstrate Cornell’s and the United States’ longstanding commitment to assist America’s farmers,” it stated.
JNS Staff
Source: https://www.jns.org/cornell-reaches-60-million-settlement-with-trump-admin-after-jew-hatred-probe/
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