The freeze follows the withholding of billions of dollars in federal funding from several Ivy League universities.
The Trump administration is freezing more than $1 billion in federal funds at Cornell University and $790 million at Northwestern University, the latest action targeting elite institutions facing civil rights investigations.
A White House official confirmed to The Epoch Times that the money was frozen “in connection with several ongoing, credible, and concerning Title VI investigations,” referring to the federal law prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, or national origin in federally funded education programs.
Both universities acknowledged reports of the funding freezes in campus-wide messages on Tuesday, but said they had not received direct notification from the federal government.
Northwestern noted it was “notified by members of the media,” while Cornell said it was “aware of media reports suggesting that more than $1 billion in federal grants have been frozen” but had “not received information that would confirm this figure.”
It was not immediately clear which federal agencies are involved in the freeze. However, Cornell reported receiving more than 75 “stop work” orders from the Defense Department on Monday, halting research tied to a broad array of advanced technologies.
“The affected grants include research into new materials for jet engines, propulsion systems, large-scale information networks, robotics, superconductors, and space and satellite communications, as well as cancer research,” Cornell said. “We are actively seeking information from federal officials to learn more about the basis for these decisions.”
“Federal funds that Northwestern receives drive innovative and life-saving research, like the recent development by Northwestern researchers of the world’s smallest pacemaker, and research fueling the fight against Alzheimer’s disease,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “This type of research is now at jeopardy.”
The Epoch Times has reached out to the federal agencies for more information.
Cornell and Northwestern now join a growing list of elite universities—including Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, Brown, and the University of Pennsylvania—that have seen their access to federal dollars threatened in recent weeks.
Many of these institutions are also under investigation by federal agencies for alleged civil rights violations related to anti-Semitism on campus, as well as other issues such as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies that run afoul of federal anti-discrimination law. For instance, the Education Department is investigating Cornell for its partnership with The PhD Project, a nonprofit group the department says purports to provide doctoral students with academic supports and networking opportunities but “limits eligibility based on the race of participants.”
By Bill Pan
