Former interim University President Paul Mahoney announced Oct. 22 that the University had reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to suspend its remaining civil rights investigations. In doing so, U.Va. joined a collection of five other major universities to settle with the federal government since March 2025, and its agreement did not include a financial payment.
Columbia University, Brown University, the University of Pennsylvania, Cornell University and Northwestern University all reached settlements with federal officials over the last year. These agreements followed investigations into alleged antisemitism and diversity, equity and inclusion practices. Harvard University was also subject to similar investigations but has refused to settle, instead opting to challenge the Justice Department in court.
In March 2025, the federal government cancelled $400 million in federal grants to Columbia, citing mishandling of alleged antisemitism on campus. Funding freezes and civil rights investigations at universities throughout the nation followed. Here is how the University’s agreement compares to those of other schools.
University of Virginia
In exchange for the Justice Department’s decision to suspend its five pending civil rights investigations dating back to April 2025, the University agreed to apply civil rights law to its operations according to the guidelines the Justice Department established in July 2025. The investigations centered on allegations that U.Va.'s admissions, hiring and DEI programs violated federal civil rights law. Many changes, including removing DEI language from websites and revising admissions criteria, were already underway and have since been documented in the University’s filings with the Justice Department.
The University is required to report quarterly on compliance with federal civil rights law, under penalty of perjury. So far, the University has filed reports in December, March and June, each documenting new policy changes since the last report. If the federal government determines that progress is insufficient, the University will be given 15 days to make appropriate progress, after which it may terminate the agreement. The agreement does not specifically list the conditions that constitute appropriate progress, instead describing the Justice Department as having sole discretion. As put forth in the agreement, the deal does not require external monitoring by an appointed private attorney or law firm and does not constitute an admission of wrongdoing.
University of Pennsylvania
Penn’s agreement, signed July 1, 2025, resolved a narrower dispute. The settlement was a response to a Title IX investigation tied to transgender swimmer Lia Thomas’ participation on Penn’s women’s team during the 2021-22 season. Penn agreed with the Department of Education to restore swimming records and titles to cisgender competitors who raced against Thomas, adopt the federal government’s definitions of sex based on reproductive biology for women’s sports and send individual written apologies to affected swimmers. The federal government separately restored $175 million in funding in July 2025 that had been previously frozen in March 2025.
Columbia University
Columbia signed one of the first of the six deals between universities and the federal government that addressed broader civil rights-related investigations July 23, 2025. The university agreed to pay $200 million to the U.S. Treasury over three years, and an additional $21 million to settle claims with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over workplace antisemitism complaints. Unlike U.Va.'s agreement, the settlement also includes an independent monitor, Charles J. Cooper, chairman and founding partner of the Washington, D.C-based law firm Cooper & Kirk, who was jointly selected by Columbia and federal officials to assess the university's compliance through semi-annual reports.
Columbia also agreed to report admissions data for all applicants, work to reduce its financial reliance on international students and assign an administrator to review academic programming related to the Middle East. In exchange, the federal government restored most of the $400 million in grants it had previously withheld and closed investigations with the Justice Department, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Education and the EEOC.
Brown University
Brown agreed to a settlement July 30, 2025, that involves a payment of $50 million over 10 years to Rhode Island workforce development organizations. The deal resolved several investigations involving alleged antisemitism and race-based admissions policies. The university’s president clarified that the agreement was distinctly different from a fine paid to the federal government — the payment is a grant to workforce development organizations. The federal government agreed to reimburse Brown for around $50 million in previously frozen grant funding as part of the same deal.
Brown also agreed to adopt the federal government’s designations of “male” and “female” based on reproductive biology for athletics and housing, bar gender-affirming care for transgender minors at Brown University Health and conduct a campus climate survey addressing the experiences of Jewish students.
Cornell University
Cornell’s agreement, signed Nov. 7, includes two separate financial payments. The underlying investigations center around complaints alleging antisemitism and broader concerns over race-based admissions. The university agreed to pay $30 million to the federal government over three years and $30 million toward agricultural research, including but not limited to programs incorporating artificial intelligence and robotics into farming. Cornell also agreed to submit admissions data quarterly and conduct annual campus climate surveys. In exchange, the federal government restored more than $250 million in previously frozen research funding and permanently closed its investigations.
Northwestern University
Northwestern’s deal is the most recent of the six, as it was signed Nov. 28. Investigations included concerns about allegations of race-based admissions and a hostile campus climate for Jewish students tied to 2024 pro-Palestinian protests. The university agreed to pay $75 million to the federal government over three years in exchange for the restoration of around $790 million in research funding that had been frozen in April 2025. Northwestern has also agreed to disclose admissions data, ban gender-affirming care for minors and uphold its commitment to single-sex athletic facilities.
The agreement also required Northwestern to terminate the 2024 “Deering Meadow Agreement”, a separate settlement the university had reached with pro-Palestinian student protestors to end a campus encampment. Northwestern also agreed to review its international student admissions policies and ended its diversity statement requirement for faculty hiring and promotion.
Looking ahead
Harvard University, unlike the other schools, has refused to sign a deal. The university sued the federal government in April 2025 over a funding freeze totaling more than $2.2 billion, and in September, a federal judge ruled in Harvard’s favor by ordering the restoration of funding. The federal government then appealed and filed a new lawsuit against Harvard in March, alleging civil rights violations. Negotiations have persisted alongside the litigation, but no agreement has been reached.
In May, the Justice Department also accused the Yale School of Medicine of discriminating against white and Asian applicants following a year-long investigation that has since widened to include Yale’s undergraduate and graduate admissions. Yale’s president, a U.Va. alum, has indicated Yale is pursuing a resolution to the ongoing threat of litigation, but no agreement has been finalized.
Looking forward for the University, in 2028, its agreement is set to conclude if quarterly reports are up to spec with the federal government’s interpretation of civil rights law. It is not yet clear what might happen if compliance requirements outlast the current administration.
Naren Senthilkumar is a staff writer on the news desk. He is a third-year student in the College majoring in Philosophy and Economics.
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