November 30, 2025 Update:
CAAN Statement on the Federal Resolution Agreement with Northwestern University
CAAN Thanks Federal Agencies, Oversight Partners, Students, Faculty, and Its Leadership Team – and Calls on Northwestern’s Incoming Leaders to Deliver Major Reforms
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Evanston, Illinois – November 30, 2025 — The Coalition Against Antisemitism at Northwestern (“CAAN”) issues the following statement in response to the November 28, 2025 Resolution Agreement entered into by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division with Northwestern University (“Resolution Agreement”). Federal investigators froze more than $1 billion in Northwestern research funding – one of the largest freezes in U.S. higher-education history – and the University will now pay a $75 million federal penalty as part of the Resolution Agreement. While the Resolution Agreement makes a necessary first step in accountability for Northwestern, it is only just the beginning.
The Deering Meadow Agreement Was a Discriminatory Capitulation – and the Resolution Agreement Finally Nullifies It. CAAN welcomes the fact that the Resolution Agreement nullifies the discriminatory Deering Meadow Agreement, a document that represented one of the lowest points in Northwestern’s history. That agreement granted preferential treatment based on national origin, empowered groups involved in harassment, bypassed required governance safeguards, and signaled an institutional surrender rather than leadership. Its elimination is an essential step toward reinstating civil rights compliance and restoring the University’s credibility.
CAAN is honored to represent the Jewish, Israeli, and Zionist students, faculty, staff, and families who endured discrimination, harassment, and fear of retaliation across nearly every facet of campus life during the 2023-2024, 2024-2025, and 2025-2026 academic years, including: classrooms and academic departments, cafeterias and dining halls, courtyards, quads, and student centers, dormitories and residential life, religious and cultural spaces, student organizations and advising environments, athletic programs, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, Feinberg School of Medicine, and more. Incidents have continued as recently as November 17, 2025, where Jewish students reported being demeaned, isolated, and subjected to one-sided political instruction under the guise of classroom “discussion.” Their courage in coming forward – often at significant personal and academic risk – made federal action possible.
Northwestern Failed to Protect its Students – and Immediate Reforms Are Required. For years, Northwestern’s leadership displayed deliberate indifference as antisemitism spread across classrooms, student life, and professional programs, and failed to take the necessary action to protect Jewish, Israeli, and Zionist students and faculty across its campuses and programs.
Northwestern must confront the governance failure exposed by recent classroom incidents: if neither federal authorities nor the administration oversee what is taught, then who does? Academic freedom protects inquiry – not political advocacy posing as instruction. As shown in the Biomedicine and World History lecture and the National Cinema syllabus, faculty injected ideologically extreme content echoing narratives of U.S.-designated terrorist organizations, delivered outside their expertise and presented as fact. This violates Northwestern’s own standards on academic neutrality, professional conduct, and conflicts of interest. CAAN calls for clear academic-neutrality rules, limits ensuring faculty teach within course scope and discipline, and safeguards preventing required courses from becoming political platforms. Without these protections, Title VI reforms cannot succeed.
This collapse of leadership was visible in: a botched series of university statements after the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre; years of complaints to the Board of Trustees–from students, parents, faculty, and alumni–that consistently fell on deaf ears; major incidents inside the law school and medical school, where Jewish students reported marginalization, isolation, and intimidation; faculty politicization inside required courses, where activism replaced academic neutrality; and the University’s inability–or unwillingness–to apply its own nondiscrimination rules when antisemitism was involved.
These failures were not isolated – they were systemic, cultural, and widespread across the institution. Northwestern must now rebuild the trust it lost with its Jewish community, and while the Resolution Agreement is a positive first step, there are still additional steps that must be taken to effectuate complete reform.
CAAN Releases Its Compliance Gaps Memorandum
Alongside today’s announcement, CAAN is releasing a memorandum titled “Five-Point Compliance Gaps Memo on the Resolution Agreement,” which documents the unresolved Title VI, governance, academic-neutrality, and foreign-influence failures that fall outside the scope of the Resolution Agreement. This memorandum is being provided to federal agencies, congressional investigators, key stakeholders, and the public. Key takeaways from the memorandum are as follows:
Northwestern must also act immediately to disaffiliate from its NU-Q campus. Extensive congressional documentation and multiple independent investigations have shown that NU-Q operates within a Qatari state-directed ecosystem shaped by the Qatar Foundation, Al Jazeera Media Network, and institutions tied to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. Such forces are fundamentally incompatible with Northwestern’s Title VI obligations, institutional neutrality commitments, and academic standards.
Major reforms are now required from Northwestern’s New President and Provost. The Resolution Agreement addresses several technical Title VI obligations: training, tracking, reporting, and response protocols. But Northwestern’s deeper failures are adaptive and cultural – and must be addressed by incoming leadership.
CAAN Will Continue to Support Federal Oversight and Student Protection. Northwestern may try to portray the Resolution Agreement as closure. It is not. It is the beginning of a years-long accountability process, and Northwestern’s claim that it was “not found in violation” misrepresents how federal civil rights agreements work. Federal agencies routinely resolve violations through agreements without formal findings when corrective plans are secured.
CAAN will continue to support federal agencies, congressional oversight committees, whistleblowers, students, faculty, and community partners as Northwestern undertakes the structural and moral reforms now required.
CAAN Thanks Federal Agencies, Investigators, and Leadership Partners. CAAN extends its sincere appreciation to the federal and congressional partners whose persistent oversight brought Northwestern to this point of federal correction:
Federal Agencies:
U.S. Department of Education – Office for Civil Rights (ED OCR)
U.S. Department of Justice – Civil Rights Division (DOJ CRT)
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – Civil Rights Division (HHS OCR)
U.S. General Services Administration (GSA)
White House Faith Office
White House Executive Office of the President
Congressional Oversight Partners:
House Committee on Education & the Workforce investigators
Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) – CAAN offers special gratitude for her leadership, moral clarity, and fearless pursuit of the facts.
Chairman Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI) – CAAN acknowledges his commitment to ensuring that Northwestern was ultimately answerable for its civil rights obligations.
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY)
Rep. Burgess Owens (R-UT)
Senator Jim Banks (R-IN)
CAAN also thanks Northwestern’s Interim President Henry Bienen for openly confronting Northwestern’s governance failures and for supporting the need for structural reform.
We further thank the CAAN leadership team, advisors, legal partners, volunteers, and allied organizations, whose sustained work supported federal investigators and strengthened the public record.
The Coalition Against Antisemitism at Northwestern (CAAN)