Northwestern University and the White House are finalizing a deal that would end the Trump administration’s monthslong pressure campaign against the school, restore hundreds of millions in federal funding and close a potentially onerous ongoing federal investigation, according to three people briefed on the matter.
The terms of the deal have not been publicly announced. But two of the people briefed on the talks said that Northwestern would be assessed a $75 million fine to the federal government as part of the deal. That would be the second highest amount a school facing a pressure campaign from the administration had agreed to pay.
President Trump has made a priority of attaching big price tags to the agreements. Critics have likened Mr. Trump’s approach to extortion, while others have chalked it up as a cost of doing business with this administration.
University leaders have struggled with the appearance of paying off the White House. Some schools, such as Columbia University, preferred the clarity of a cash deal that paid $200 million directly to the Treasury Department. Brown University, on the other hand, negotiated an agreement that allowed the school to spend $50 million on state work force programs.
A White House spokeswoman declined to comment on details. A Northwestern spokesman did not return multiple requests for comment. The people briefed on the talks cautioned that the deal was not finalized and could still change.
Northwestern has endured months of pressure from the White House and fellow Republicans in Congress. In the face of that pressure, the university’s president, Michael H. Schill, abruptly announced on Sept. 4 that he would resign after three years in office.
Republicans have accused Northwestern of not doing enough to address antisemitism during campus protests over the war in Gaza, and Mr. Schill faced a difficult hearing on Capitol Hill last year over whether the school had adequately protected Jewish students.
In April, the Trump administration froze at least $790 million in federal research funding planned for Northwestern. In July, the university announced plans to eliminate about 425 jobs. University officials said nearly half of those jobs were vacant and described the layoffs as “a drastic step” and “the most painful measure we have had to take.”
Mr. Schill was replaced on an interim basis by Henry Bienen, who served in the role from 1995-2009. In October, Mr. Bienen told faculty members that he wanted to strike a deal to restore research funding but would not sign an agreement that “hinders the autonomy of the university.”
“I want to do a deal with the federal government,” Mr. Bienen said, according to The Daily Northwestern, the student newspaper. “I don’t want to get into suits with the federal government.”
Harvard has been the only university to sue the administration this year over punitive funding cuts. Harvard won its case in U.S. District Court in Boston in September, and as a result, the government has restored the flow of billions in research funding.
Northwestern has taken a variety of steps to deal with the funding cutoff as it sought to resolve the fight with the Trump administration.
In September, the school said that despite the freezing of federal funding, it would meet “the essential funding needs of our faculty researchers” through at least the end of 2025.
“We continue to urge fiscal responsibility, including the conservative use of funds to help minimize university risk and extend the time that Northwestern can support our research community,” top leaders wrote, adding, “As we invest in protecting Northwestern’s research enterprise, we remain steadfast in our efforts to regain access to the federal funding that was promised to our investigators.”
In that memo, the university’s administrators also signaled potential red lines for an agreement with the government, writing that their efforts were “grounded in core principles we share as an intellectual community: the preservation of academic freedom and the independent operation of our university.”
Earlier this month, Cornell University struck a $60 million deal that included both cash payments to the government and investments in agricultural research programs. The university said it would decide which research programs to invest in, but critics, including a Cornell faculty rights group, said the deal gave the appearance of letting the federal government direct the university’s priorities.
In addition to Brown, Columbia and Cornell, the administration has also reached agreements this year with the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Virginia. Those deals did not include a financial component. Instead, Penn agreed to conform its transgender policies to the Trump administration’s strict definitions of gender. Virginia’s deal was preceded by the forced resignation of its president, James Ryan.
The administration has also held on-again, off-again negotiations with Harvard. Last week, Linda McMahon, the education secretary, said an agreement with Harvard was almost finished, just as Mr. Trump had said in September and in July.
Michael C. Bender is a Times correspondent in Washington.
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