Trump admin to freeze $510M to Brown University over anti-Semitism, DEI on campus
In 2024, Campus Reform Editor-in-Chief Dr. Zachary Marschall's Title VI complaint against Brown led the Department of Education to investigate the school over its failures to protect Jewish students.
‘Radical ideas such as anti-racism and critical race theory are innately antisemitic, and diversity, equity, and inclusion offices have been the leading force in implementing them across higher education,’ he wrote in 2024.
The Trump administration is reportedly planning to suspend $510 million to Brown University in Rhode Island.
The funds will remain frozen as the White House examines concerns related to anti-Semitism and the school’s promotion of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), the the Daily Caller first reported on Thursday.
A Brown University spokesperson told Campus Reform that the school has “no information to substantiate what’s being reported,” though a White House official confirmed the upcoming funding freeze to CNN.
On Friday, the Boston Globe reported Campus Reform Editor-in-Chief Dr. Zachary Marschall’s Title VI complaint in January 2024 claiming that “pro-Israel students are targeted and threatened” at Brown after the university’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine expressed support for the “Palestinian resistance” shortly after the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre. Marschall’s complaint led to the Department of Education opening an investigation into the Ivy League school.
In July of that year, Brown University reached an agreement with the Department of Education, committing itself, among other measures, to take stronger measures to combat discrimination on campus.
Marschall also wrote an op-ed for the Washington Examiner on Jan. 30, 2024 stating that DEI has contributed to anti-Semitism at Brown.
“Radical ideas such as anti-racism and critical race theory are innately antisemitic, and diversity, equity, and inclusion offices have been the leading force in implementing them across higher education,” he wrote.
He added that “DEI’s agenda to advance indoctrination, activism, and ignorance among college students fuels the antisemitic agenda that thrives on campus in the shadows of “anti-Israel” or “anti-Western” critiques.”
[RELATED: Trump Dept. of Ed launches investigations of anti-Semitism at five universities]
The news of the potential move by the Trump administration against Brown comes after the administration has started a review of the $9 billion that Harvard University receives from taxpayers, blaming the university of allowing anti-Semitism to go unchecked.
The White House has also frozen $210 million to Princeton University as part of an anti-Semitism investigation that was also started because of a Title VI complaint that Marschall filed.
In March, Columbia University agreed to a set of demands from the Trump administration to make Jewish students feel safer on campus after the White House froze $400 million.
