Cornell University announces $60M deal with Trump administration to restore funding News
Dantes De MonteCristo, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Cornell University announces $60M deal with Trump administration to restore funding

Cornell University announced on Friday that it has reached a settlement with US President Donald Trump’s administration to adopt the administration’s interpretation of federal civil rights laws, and to pay $60 million. In exchange, the federal government will restore Cornell’s federal research funding and end ongoing investigations.

President Michael I. Kotlikoff wrote: “The decades-long research partnership between Cornell and 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.”

The new settlement restores that funding in exchange for Cornell paying $30 million over three years to the federal government to end “pending claims” against the university. Under the deal, Cornell will align its policies with the administration’s position that any consideration of race in university practices constitutes unlawful discrimination.

Cornell also agreed to invest a separate $30 million into agricultural research over the next three years.

The agreement follows months of scrutiny by the Department of Education and the Department of Justice, which accused the Ivy League school of violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by allegedly discriminating against students based on race in admissions, financial aid, and campus programs.

Federal agencies suspended over $1 billion in Cornell’s federal funding approximately one month later.

Kotliff further stated on Friday that “with this resolution, Cornell looks forward to resuming the long and fruitful partnership with the federal government that has yielded, for so many years, so much progress and well-being for our nation and our world.”

The university stated its agreements to such terms are “not an admission of wrongdoing.”

The settlement makes Cornell the fourth Ivy League institution, after the University of Pennsylvania, Brown University and Columbia University, to formally come to an agreement with the Trump administration to restore federal funding.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Montgomery started racially-integrated bus service after boycott

On December 21, 1956, buses in Montgomery, Alabama, started racially integrated service following federal court rulings ending on-board segregation. Bus boycott leaders Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and Rev. Ralph Abernathy were among the first riders under the new scheme. Learn about the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Stalin born

On December 21, 1879, Joseph Stalin was born in Gori, Georgia. In 1922, he became leader of the USSR until his death in 1953. During his time as Soviet dictator, Stalin industrialized his country, which he then led to become one of the world's two superpowers after WWII. Through his infamous purges, show trials and nationwide famines, Stalin also became responsible for millions of deaths.