Trump admin should probe Northwestern U over Qatar contract, Brandeis Center says

The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law is urging the U.S. Department of Justice to probe Northwestern University over the highly ranked private school’s $737 million contract with Qatar.

The center’s letter, which was sent to the department on Friday, stated that the university’s contract with the Qatar Foundation, which the Gulf state controls, violates the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA. (JNS sought comment from the university.)

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The letter noted that Michael Schill, the university’s then-president, revealed to the House Education and Workforce Committee in an August 2025 interview that the university’s agreement with the Qatar Foundation had stipulations limiting speech not just on the university’s Qatar campus but in the United States as well.

The agreement states that the university “shall be subject to the applicable laws and regulations of the State of Qatar, and shall respect the cultural, religious and social customs of the State of Qatar,” per the center.

Two weeks after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks against Israel, Qatar Foundation staffers sent emails to the dean of the university’s Qatar campus with talking points about “diplomatic role and mediation efforts in Palestine/Gaza and Afghanistan—along with reactions from international politicians,” according to the center.

Citing a March report from the House Education and Workforce Committee, the center noted that the foundation held a meeting with deans from various U.S. universities, including Northwestern, where the foundation told the private school that “any communications received, or proposed to be sent to government entities” should be sent to the foundation first.

One of the other examples cited in the center’s letter includes the university’s Qatar campus hosting an event shortly after Oct. 7 featuring a professor who “glorifies Hamas” speaking on a university-sponsored panel titled “Hamas and the Framing of Terrorism.”

“These activities are simply the presentation of speakers, documents or talking points deemed acceptable to Qatar to promote Qatar’s point of view in the United States,” the letter stated. “Further, universities that coordinate talking points with foreign principals or that use their official logos and websites to promulgate foreign public relations material are within the scope of those sections.”

Kenneth L. Marcus, chairman and CEO of the Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, stated that “when a foreign government funnels hundreds of millions of dollars into one of America’s most prestigious universities and then seeks to shape the school’s actions and messaging, the public has a right to know the full extent of that relationship.

“Academic freedom and the civil rights of students, faculty members and their families should never be beholden to the purse strings of a foreign government, especially one that has so openly sought to spread antisemitism and embolden extremism in the United States,” he said.

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