Northwestern University has ramped up its lobbying efforts in the face of anti-Semitism investigations from the Trump administration and Congress, with expenditures ballooning last quarter to a whopping $757,000—almost as much as Columbia and Harvard universities combined.
That amount—combining in-house and outside spending—marks a more than five-fold increase compared to the same period in 2024, lobbying disclosures reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon show. In fact, that spending level puts it closer to the University of California ($1 million)—one of the largest systems in the country—and the Association of American Medical Colleges ($895,000)—which represents hundreds of medical schools and health systems—than to Harvard ($250,000).
Much of Northwestern’s lobbying activity surrounded appropriations legislation, though it also targeted issues “pertaining to combating antisemitism” and “Congressional oversight of Institutions of Higher Education,” disclosure forms show.
The intensified lobbying effort appears to be largely ineffective, however. The House Committee on Education and Workforce is also demanding a meeting on anti-Semitism with Northwestern’s president, Michael Schill, the Free Beacon reported. The Trump administration, meanwhile, launched its second probe into alleged discrimination against Jewish students at Northwestern, and froze $790 million in federal funding to the university over campus anti-Semitism.
Students balked at the lobbying spending, arguing that Northwestern should instead increase its efforts to protect Jewish students. Christina Sher, a student leader with the Coalition Against Antisemitism at Northwestern and a freshman studying biomedical engineering, pointed to an incident during Passover last month in which vandals spray-painted Hamas triangles on a campus building that houses the Holocaust center.
“There have been no meaningful reforms since the grant freeze. In fact, antisemitism on campus has only escalated—with the Kresge vandalism and the Sarge Dining Hall anti-Israel performance both occurring after the funding cuts,” Sher told the Free Beacon. “Instead of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on lobbyists to manage political fallout, Northwestern should be investing in protecting its Jewish students. We don’t need PR consultants—we need accountability. The university’s silence after incidents like the Passover vandalism at Kresge Hall makes it clear where its priorities lie,” she added.
Jeanine Yuen, a Northwestern senior and president of the College Republicans chapter, echoed a similar sentiment.
“Instead of spending more than half a million on lobbying in Washington, I wish to see Northwestern enforce its First Amendment and Title VI protections for its students on its own campus—especially for Jewish students,” Yuen said. “Fairness and free speech are foundational to our nation, and that deserves effort to uphold—which Northwestern is currently neglecting.”
Northwestern began its spending increase in 2024 as elite universities faced mounting scrutiny over their handling of campus anti-Semitism, reaching over $1 million in in-house expenditures alone—more than the two previous years combined. It spent $517,000 in the third quarter alone—greater than the annual totals for every year since 2020. That decreased to just under $290,000 the next quarter, though that amount is still far greater than normal.
James Quintero, the policy director of the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Taxpayer Protection Project, argued that the lobbying money could instead be spent to lower Northwestern students’ tuition.
“Northwestern University is on track to spend well over $1 million on lobbying this year. That’s a lot of money that could otherwise be used to lower tuition, provide financial assistance, and offer student support services. But instead, it’s going toward political advocacy efforts that benefit only a few,” Quintero told the Free Beacon. “Of course, Northwestern University is just one of many colleges and universities engaged in this practice. The problem is extremely widespread.”
Northwestern, like Harvard, hired a high-profile, MAGA-linked lobbying firm, Miller Strategies, this spring to navigate scrutiny from the Trump administration. But so far, its spending on that firm’s services haven’t even reached $5,000—a small fraction of the university’s total lobbying expenditures, a disclosure form reveals.
Harvard showed a $90,000 year-over-year increase in its lobbying spending for the first quarter of 2025, but that total still marks only about a third of Northwestern’s. Columbia more than tripled its spending, bringing it up to $520,000. Both universities, however, outspent Northwestern during the same period last year, with Harvard at $160,000 and Columbia at $254,000, compared with Northwestern’s $140,000.
The Ivy League universities have likewise faced major federal funding cuts and congressional scrutiny over their handling of campus anti-Semitism. Harvard saw another $450 million in grants frozen on Tuesday in addition to the $2.2 billion frozen last month, while Columbia has had $430 million slashed.
While Northwestern has taken some efforts to combat anti-Semitism, it’s unclear how effective those have been.
The university implemented a new mandatory anti-discrimination training, but it relies on unverified data from the Council on American-Islamic Relations that inflate Islamophobic attacks, giving the false impression that those attacks vastly outpace anti-Semitic hate crimes, the Free Beacon reported in February.
Northwestern also warned its Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) chapter that its constitution, which bars Zionist Jews from joining, violates the school’s new anti-discrimination policy, the Free Beacon reported. But the university didn’t say how long JVP had to amend its rules or what consequences the recognized student group would face if it failed to comply.
And anti-Semitic groups appear to remain emboldened. Last month, Northwestern’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter hosted an anarchist training session featuring two pamphlets that included propaganda from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror group. Unity of Fields—a self-described “militant front against the US-NATO-zionist axis of imperialism” that has vowed to bring violence to America—created one, which quoted a PFLP leader and called on students to “build an Intifada” so that they could “destroy amerika [sic].” The other, crafted by the SJP chapter, featured a PFLP cartoon on the cover and encouraged students to “channel [their] anger” so that they could “aid in the fight” against Israel.
Northwestern did not respond to a request for comment.
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