The Trump administration announced the suspension of nearly $2 billion in grants to the pair over alleged civil right violations on campus.
According to the Associated Press, Cornell has seen $1 billion in funding frozen, while $790 million has been withheld from Northwestern.
In a statement, Cornell said that it had received more than 70 “stop work orders” yesterday, which instruct researchers to halt their projects in the absence of the funding.
These apparently came from the Defence Department and related to research that was “profoundly significant to American national defence, cybersecurity, and health”. The university said that no further confirmation of the funding freeze had been received since.
Cornell president Michael Kotlikoff said: “We are actively seeking information from federal officials to learn more about the basis for these decisions.”
Likewise, Northwestern’s spokesman John Yates said: “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.
"This type of research is now in jeopardy.”
Yates added that the college was yet to receive official confirmation of the decision.
There was no further confirmation from the White House regarding exactly why the decision was taken, but it follows similar moves at Harvard, Princeton and Columbia connected to an Education Department investigation into antisemitism in US higher education following widespread pro-Palestine protests last year.
Both Cornell and Northwestern were also among a group of more than 60 institutions sent letters by the department remind them of their obligations to “protect Jewish students on campus, including uninterrupted access to campus facilities and educational opportunities” and warning of “enforcement action” if such requirements were not met.
Thus far, the administration has only attributed previous funding freezes to alleged inaction on antisemitism or what it considers to be overly permissive regulations regarding transgender athletes.
Some institutions, such as Harvard and Columbia, have reportedly been supplied with conditions for the resumption of funding which have included the scrapping of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) schemes and a guarantee of “full compliance” with the Department of Homeland Security over immigration enforcement.
