Brown University announced a deal with the Trump administration this week that sees the Ivy League school bowing to the presidents anti-trans demands in exchange for the restoration of federal grant funding.The deal, announced Wednesday, July 30, restores over $500 million in federal contracts and research grants that the administration paused in April, according to Politico and other outlets. Under the terms of the agreement, Brown will ban transgender women from participating in womens sports and from accessing spaces like bathrooms and locker rooms. It also requires the university to adopt the definition of male and female outlined in Donald Trumps January 20 anti-trans executive order for the purposes of its athletics programs and events. Related Higher education should fight Trumps bullying attempts to silence free speech He is squeezing colleges and universities to comply. Instead, they should unite and fight back. As MSNBCs Chris Hayes pointed out in a BlueSky post, another stipulation of the agreement requires the university to agree not to perform gender reassignment surgery or prescribe puberty blockers or hormones to any minor child for the purpose of aligning the childs appearance with an identity that differs from his or her sex.Just read the Brown University agreement and this really jumped out."The University will not perform gender reassignment surgery or prescribe puberty blockers or hormones to any minor child for the purpose of aligning the child's appearance with an identity that differs from his or her sex." Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes.bsky.social) 2025-07-30T22:54:54.982Z Insights for the LGBTQ+ community Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more. Subscribe to our Newsletter today The Rhode Island university also agreed to pay $50 million in grants to workforce development organizations in the state, to be reimbursed by the government; to stop considering personal statements or diversity narratives in its admissions process and turn over data on the race and grades of students who are admitted for the government to audit; and various measures to improve the climate on campus for Jewish students.Brown is one of seven elite universities that the Trump administration has targeted with funding freezes and investigations into alleged antisemitism and racial bias since this spring. This week, the administration announced that it had frozen $108 million in funds to Duke University. Trump and his allies contend that the schools have failed to address alleged antisemitism on campus particularly as it relates to student protests against Israels war on Gaza and the well-documented humanitarian crisis that has resulted from it and that their admissions processes disadvantage white and Asian applicants. Critics, however, say the funding pauses are part of the administrations efforts to limit academic freedom and reshape American higher education to fit Trumps political agenda.In a statement, Brown President Christina Paxson noted that the agreement includes a clause preventing the government from dictating the schools curriculum or the content of academic speech, according to both Al Jazeera and the Associated Press.The Universitys foremost priority throughout discussions with the government was remaining true to our academic mission, our core values, and who we are as a community at Brown, Paxson said. We stand solidly behind commitments we repeatedly have affirmed to protect all members of our community from harassment and discrimination, and we protect the ability of our faculty and students to study and learn academic subjects of their choosing, free from censorship. Paxson does not appear to have addressed how, exactly, the university plans to protect trans students forced to use bathrooms and locker rooms that do not align with their gender identity.As Aljazeera notes, Brown is the third Ivy League school to strike a deal with the Trump administration to restore federal funding. Unlike Columbia University, which will pay $221 million to the government as part of a deal announced last week, Brown avoided any fines. As part of the University of Pennsylvanias deal, announced earlier this month, the school said it would not only ban trans women from participating in womens sports, it would also strip trans swimmer and Penn alumna Lia Thomas of the titles she won while competing at the school in exchange for the release of $175 million in frozen funding.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.