The Trump administration is continuing its push to force the country’s institutions of higher education to ditch the left-wing policies of using race and ethnicity as their guiding principle when it comes to internal hiring, promotions, and student admissions.
The administration has particularly focused its effort on the country’s elite Ivy League institutions.
In that vein, Brown University President Christina Paxson announced that she will step down at the end of the academic year, concluding a presidency marked by significant challenges, including a dispute over federal funding and a campus shooting that claimed three lives.
In an open letter published Monday on the university’s website, Paxson said she had originally intended to leave a year earlier but decided to remain in office to help the university navigate what she described as a federal funding freeze that threatened its mission.
The Trump administration had proposed withholding approximately $510 million in federal grants to Brown, making the funding dispute one of the defining issues of the final phase of Paxson’s tenure.
Brown University was among the first higher education institutions targeted during the Trump administration’s broader disputes with several elite universities over issues including antisemitism on campus, DEI initiatives, and other left-wing education priorities.
The administration threatened to withhold approximately $510 million in federal research funding before Brown reached an agreement in July 2025 that restored the grants.
Under the agreement, Brown committed to an independent assessment of campus climate, including conditions affecting Jewish students, along with recommendations to improve the campus environment.
According to the Washington Examiner, the university also agreed to invest $50 million in Rhode Island workforce development programs and to comply with federal administration policies regarding admissions and transgender athletes.
At the time, Trump hailed the settlement on his Truth Social platform.
“Congratulations to Brown University on the settlement made with the United States Government. There will be no more Anti-Semitism, or Anti-Christian, or Anti-Anything Else! Woke is officially DEAD at Brown,” he wrote.
Paxson, who has served as the Ivy League president for 15 years, announced the upcoming end of her tenure in a letter addressed to the Brown community.
“Fifteen years is a significant tenure for any president, and in that time, this amazing community of faculty, staff, students, alumni, parents and friends showed up in so many ways to achieve the bold aspirations in the strategic plan we developed together near the beginning of my presidency,” she wrote.
The agreement with the Trump administration prompted criticism from some faculty members and students, who argued the university had made excessive concessions on issues including admissions policies and rules affecting transgender athletes.
Paxson, however, defended the agreement, saying it was necessary to protect the university’s research mission and long-term interests.
“I am proud that we came to an agreement with the federal government that restored our funding while staying true to Brown’s values,” Paxson stated in her resignation letter.
Paxson also led Brown University through the aftermath of a December campus shooting that left two people dead and nine others injured, an incident that prompted renewed scrutiny of campus security and emergency preparedness.
In a separate letter to the Brown community, Chancellor Brian T. Moynihan thanked Paxson for her leadership and announced that the university has launched a nationwide search for Brown’s 20th president, with the goal of selecting a successor before the start of the next academic year.
The administration’s efforts to end DEI practices at the country’s higher education institutes extends to those operated by and associated with the U.S. military.
In February, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced that the Pentagon will cancel all military attendance at a group of elite universities beginning with the 2026–27 academic year, as part of a broader reshaping of military education policy, Defense Department officials said.
In a video posted on social media, Hegseth said the policy would apply to institutions that have traditionally hosted U.S. military officers for graduate and professional education, including Brown, Princeton University, Columbia University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Yale University.
