Contact: Leila Miller | press@indivisible.org
Washington, D.C. — Today, Indivisible’s Co-Founder and Chief Campaigns Officer Sarah Dohl issued the following statement after Brown University announced it had reached an agreement with the Trump administration to restore frozen federal research funding in exchange for implementing discriminatory and coercive policy changes:
“Brown University’s decision to cut a deal with the Trump administration is a shameful surrender to authoritarian demands, not a principled compromise. Let’s be clear: this wasn’t a negotiation — it was a shakedown.
“Trump froze funding to bully universities into enforcing his far-right agenda — banning trans students from sports and facilities, surveilling campus activists, and using bad-faith claims of antisemitism to silence pro-Palestinian speech. Brown didn’t stand up. They caved.
“For $50 million and a few weak legal denials, Brown University President Christina Paxson and its Trustees handed Trump a political victory — agreeing to enforce sex segregation in locker rooms using Trump’s anti-trans executive orders, redefine gender for athletic participation, give the federal government access to private admissions and discrimination complaint data, and conduct a campus climate survey that conveniently advances the regime’s narrative.
“Other universities will now face the same threats. This isn’t a one-off — it’s a blueprint for authoritarian control of higher education. And unless schools start fighting back, Trump will keep tightening the screws.
“You can cave, or you can resist. Brown chose wrong.”
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