The College of California on Wednesday mentioned scholar governments and all different “college entities” are banned from boycotting Israel, a direct response to a Trump administration directive that establishments partaking in such boycotts wouldn’t qualify for federal medical and science analysis grants.
In a letter to chancellors, UC President Michael Drake advised campus leaders that “boycotts of firms primarily based on their affiliation with a selected nation” have been a violation of college coverage. Whereas UC doesn’t have an anti-boycott rule on the books, Drake mentioned that current insurance policies require aggressive bidding for college contracts. Additionally, campus scholar governments should have interaction in “sound enterprise practices” that abide by UC authorized necessities, which he mentioned clarify that boycotts of countries usually are not allowed.
The insurance policies govern all campuses, medical facilities, the Agriculture and Pure Sources division and Lawrence Berkeley Nationwide Laboratory.
The anti-boycott letter doesn’t apply to scholar golf equipment, that are given wider autonomy of their political positions and monetary choices as a result of they don’t characterize campuses as a complete. In addition they have smaller budgets. However the letter may have an effect on sure skilled faculty governments, corresponding to at regulation colleges, that are formally acknowledged by chancellors as “licensed scholar governments.”
Drake’s discover builds upon the college’s yearslong opposition to the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions motion. That motion has been accused of antisemitism for its purpose to sever educational partnerships and monetary investments tied to Israel and Israeli firms. It peaked final 12 months amongst scholar governments and supporters of pro-Palestinian encampments that swept UC campuses.
The letter comes as UC is underneath a systemwide investigation by the Trump administration over allegations of antisemitic employment discrimination and faces campus-level probes of UCLA and UC Berkeley by a federal job pressure on antisemitism that has yanked billions in funding from elite universities, together with Harvard and Columbia.
The UC anti-boycott message applies to protests focusing on any nation, however was launched after the Division of Well being and Human Providers and Nationwide Science Basis mentioned in notices to all grantees that federal funds have been at stake over the anti-Israel actions.
HHS oversees the Nationwide Institutes of Well being, which is the biggest supply of federal funding for UC analysis and granted $2.6 billion to all campuses final educational 12 months. The NSF was the second-largest supply of federal funding at $524 million in 2024.
The figures have considerably declined because the Trump administration started slashing a whole bunch of tens of millions of {dollars} in analysis assist and funding that covers overhead funds for grants — cuts which might be being challenged in a number of federal courtroom circumstances.
HHS and NSF steerage on anti-Israel boycotts additionally mentioned the federal government wouldn’t award grants to universities that promote “variety, fairness and inclusion.” Whereas UC has discontinued some practices, corresponding to the necessities of college job candidates to submit variety statements, the college system has largely stored its diversity-related practices in place. It has defended its outreach applications to recruit racially various undergraduates and college.
“The correct of people and teams to specific their views on public issues is distinct from the accountability of college entities to conduct their monetary affairs in a way in keeping with college coverage and relevant regulation,” Drake wrote. “This letter reaffirms each: the rights of scholars, college, and employees to specific their views, and the college’s obligation to make sure that its models don’t have interaction in monetary boycotts of firms related to a selected nation.”
The transfer may face resistance from undergraduate and graduate scholar authorities our bodies, which have at instances prided themselves on taking positions that distinction with college administration.
Aditi Hariharan, a UC Davis undergraduate and president of the UC Scholar Assn., who was briefed on the boycott ban in latest weeks by directors, mentioned she disagrees with it.
“College students have already got little affect on how the college works and scholar authorities is among the few locations the place they will actually get entangled and have their voices heard,” Hariharan mentioned in an interview earlier than the letter was launched. Her group represents college students throughout UC campuses. “However this damages the assist college students really feel in having the ability to elect their very own folks and have a say of their colleges.”
Whereas UC leaders have firmly opposed calls for from campus activists to divest campus-level and systemwide endowments from ties to Israel or weapons firms linked to the warfare in Gaza, boycott actions have been profitable amongst scholar governments. Many endorsed BDS final 12 months and vowed to not fund or promote pro-Israel occasions and audio system or use merchandise from companies positioned on a boycott record for working in Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.
UCLA’s undergraduate and graduate scholar teams, for instance, handed anti-Israel boycotts measures final 12 months. The undergraduate authorities accused Israel of “apartheid, ethnic cleaning, and genocide” and “dedicated to encouraging monetary allocations not be used” to assist Israel.
Drake’s assertion towards boycotts doesn’t apply to campus teams, corresponding to College students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, which assist BDS. That’s as a result of these teams are thought of by UC campuses as “registered campus organizations” which might be given extra leeway to take political motion on points referring to their memberships. They differ from “licensed official scholar governments” that characterize large swaths of the coed physique in campus and governance issues.
Many campus College students for Justice in Palestine teams have been suspended or banned, together with two at UCLA that have been expelled this 12 months.
Drake’s message may have an effect on graduate school-level scholar governments the place boycotts have brought on a stir.
In March, UC Davis suspended its Legislation Scholar Assn. and took over its $40,000 finances after it handed a boycott decision towards Israel, together with a ban on sponsoring pro-Israel audio system. The college mentioned on the time that the group violated campus coverage that required scholar governments to “present monetary and different tangible assist for scholar actions and organizations on a viewpoint-neutral foundation.”
Drake’s letter seems to clarify that the Davis boycott was additionally a violation of UC-wide guidelines.
