PROVIDENCE — The Trump administration confirmed Friday that it will block $510 million in federal contracts and grants for Brown University as part of its push to hold elite universities accountable for persistent antisemitism on campus.
“We can confirm this reporting,’’ Harrison Fields, special assistant to the president and principal deputy press secretary, told the Globe on Friday.
But Jewish students at the Ivy League school say the move does not make them feel safer, and state leaders note that the cuts could have a harmful ripple effect throughout Rhode Island.
Brown received more than $254 million in total federal funding in fiscal year 2024 alone, according to spokesman Brian Clark. The school is one of Rhode Island’s largest employers and a key player in building out the state’s life sciences and medical industries. It is already facing a $46 million budget deficit and a hiring freeze, and has had to find funding by dipping into its $7.2 billion endowment, which is one of the smallest among Ivy League schools.
Rhode Island House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi, a Democrat who has championed the state’s life sciences efforts, told the Globe that a $510 million cut “will have a ripple effect throughout our economy.’’
Brown is “a strategic partner in the life science efforts that we just started and were seeing some very, very good results,’’ said Shekarchi. “This could be a setback. I am concerned.’’
Brown is the fifth university to face a potentially dire loss of federal funding. On Thursday, the Trump administration’s antisemitism task force sent Harvard University a list of demands, detailing actions the school must take to avoid losing billions of dollars in federal funding. Columbia University, the site of massive pro-Palestinian protests last year, was targeted in early March. Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania have also been threatened with funding cuts.
Maey Petrie, executive director of the nonprofit New England Medical Innovation Center, told the Globe that many of the entrepreneurs her team works with are Brown faculty or physicians, and said these cuts “will have a profound and immediate impact on our community.’’
“The long-term effects on scientific innovation are hard to overstate,’’ said Petrie. “The administration may not fully grasp the damage being done for years, but from where we stand, it’s already clear: Research pipelines are being choked, momentum is being lost, and crucial health equity work is being deprioritized.’’
US Senator Jack Reed told the Globe that while his office was still gathering details, “it is deeply disconcerting and part of a broader pattern by the Trump administration to go after higher education in ways that will negatively impact communities across the country and lead to layoffs, restrict research, and more.’’
US Congressman Seth Magaziner, a Rhode Island Democrat, told the Globe he spoke to Brown president Christina H. Paxson by phone on Thursday. “She hadn’t actually received any official communication from the administration with any specifics,’’ he said.
On Friday, Brown University officials still had not been informed of the cuts. “Despite the extensive public reporting, Brown has not been contacted by the federal government, and we have no information to substantiate what has been reported,’’ Clark said.
Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee acknowledged the critical role the university plays in the state’s economy.
“The university is a valued partner with the state in many ways, including helping Rhode Island grow its life science hub,’’ he said in a statement. “If confirmed, the Trump Administration’s targeted pause on nearly a half billion dollars in federal awards could be devasting to the university, harm our economy, and hamper our efforts to achieve the strategic goals of the RI 2030 plan.’’
Meanwhile, Brown University students said the Trump administration’s cuts, made in the name of protecting them from antisemitism, did not make them feel any safer.
“As a Jewish student, I do not feel this makes me safer in the slightest,’’ said Andrew Rovinsky, class of 2025. “Brown is not a perfect place when it comes to antisemitism, but I have never felt unsafe on this campus and in this community and have always felt free to express myself publicly as a Jewish student. The Trump administration is, in my view, weaponizing antisemitism to repress dissent and scholarship that it disagrees with.’’
“This is not about Jewish students, but the Trump administration’s political agenda,’’ he added.
“I am a proud Jewish student at Brown, and I fully reject the slashing of funds in the name of combating antisemitism,’’ said Canaan Estes, class of 2028. “I feel safer in spaces of academic engagement and open dialogue, not censorship and fear.’’
Others noted that antisemitism exists at Brown, but the university has worked to combat it.
“At a university where nearly a quarter of the students are Jewish and Jewish life thrives, it’s difficult for me to see what could warrant such a response from the federal government,’’ said Eli Williams, member of the class of 2028.
Maya Rackoff, class of 2025, agreed. “The Trump administration is going about it in a counterproductive and authoritative way, infringing upon real and perceived academic freedom,’’ she said. “The most ironic part about cutting Brown’s funding is that the Brown administration has been uncommonly strong in supporting Jewish and Zionist students, and Jewish life has thrived here over the past year and a half.’’
The Trump administration has targeted colleges for their handling of antisemitism after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel and Israel’s subsequent war against the militants in Gaza.
In late 2023, more than 40 student activists led by the Brown Divest Coalition were arrested for staging sit-ins inside campus buildings and calling for the school to divest from companies with ties to Israel. When pro-Palestinian protests took place on campus last year, the school negotiated with student protesters, and the encampment was disbanded peacefully. In return, the school agreed to bring their demands for divestment to the Brown Corporation; the board voted against divesting, explaining it had no direct investments in the companies the student activists had identified.
Still, the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation in 2024 into whether Brown’s administration failed to respond to incidents of alleged harassment against students with Jewish ancestry, which would have violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. In a July 2024 resolution, Brown denied it violated Title VI but agreed to expand nondiscrimination trainings and other measures, including “ongoing monitoring.’’
The initial complaint that launched the investigation was filed by Zachary Marschall, the editor of Campus Reform, a conservative news organization focused on universities. Campus Reform has filed several lawsuits alleging antisemitism, arguing that schools “failed to protect students of Jewish heritage following the Oct. 7, 2023 attack.’’
In March, Brown was one of 60 universities that received a letter from the US Department of Education, warning it could face “enforcement actions’’ if they failed to “protect Jewish students on campus.’’
“That support is a privilege and it is contingent on scrupulous adherence to federal antidiscrimination laws,’’ Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said at the time.
For the first time since 2002, Brown has hired firms to lobby Congress and the Trump administration on its behalf. Representatives from Cornerstone Government Affairs and AxAdvocacy, which touts its links to the GOP, did not respond to requests for comment on Friday.
Even with federal funding on the chopping block, Brown is unlikely to get help from the state. For the last few years, Brown has requested millions in a state budget appropriation to support cancer research. They’ve never received the funding, and Shekarchi said Trump’s latest proposed cuts “doesn’t change my mind at all.’’
“Everybody needs help. Everybody’s getting cut,’’ said Shekarchi. “Sadly, elections have consequences. And we’re going to see a lot more of this.’’
Sofia Barnett, a Globe correspondent and Brown University student, contributed to this report.
