College of California leaders face a tough selection after the U.S. Division of Justice stated this week that UCLA had violated the civil rights of Jewish college students throughout pro-Palestinian protests and federal companies on Wednesday suspended greater than $300 million in analysis grants to the college.
Do they comply with a pricey settlement, doubtlessly incurring the anger of taxpayers, politicians and campus communities in a deep-blue state that’s largely against President Trump and his battle to remake larger schooling?
Or do they go to court docket, getting into a protracted authorized combat and probably inviting additional debilitating federal actions in opposition to the nation’s premier public college system, which has till now fastidiously averted head-on conflicts with the White Home?
Leaders of the College of California, together with its systemwide president, James B. Milliken; UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk and UC’s 24-member Board of Regents — California Gov. Gavin Newsom is an ex-officio member — have simply days to resolve.
What led to the battle
In findings issued Tuesday, U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi and the Justice Division stated UCLA would pay a “heavy worth” for performing with “deliberate indifference” to the civil rights of Jewish and Israeli college students who complained of antisemitic incidents since Oct. 7, 2023. That’s when Hamas attacked Israel, which led to Israel’s struggle in Gaza and the pro-Palestinian scholar encampment on Royce Quad.
The Justice Division gave UC — which oversees federal authorized issues for UCLA and 9 different campuses — every week to answer the allegations of antisemitism. It wrote that “until there’s affordable certainty that we are able to attain an settlement” to “make sure that the hostile setting is eradicated and affordable steps are taken to stop its recurrence,” the division would sue by Sept. 2.
A day after the Justice Division disclosed its findings, the Nationwide Institutes of Well being, Nationwide Science Basis, Division of Vitality and different federal companies stated they have been suspending lots of of grants to UCLA researchers. A letter from the NSF cited the college’s alleged “discrimination” in admissions and failure to “promote a analysis setting freed from antisemitism.” A Division of Vitality letter reducing off grants on clear vitality and nuclear energy crops made related accusations, including that “UCLA discriminates in opposition to and endangers girls by permitting males in girls’s sports activities and personal women-only areas.”
Preliminary information shared with The Occasions on Thursday evening confirmed the cuts to be no less than $200 million. On Friday, extra data shared by UC and federal officers pointed to the quantity being larger than $300 million — greater than 1 / 4 of UCLA’s $1.1 billion in annual federal funding and contracts. UCLA has not launched a complete quantity.
In a campuswide message Thursday, Frenk, the UCLA chancellor, known as the federal government’s strikes “deeply disappointing.”
“This far-reaching penalty of defunding life-saving analysis does nothing to handle any alleged discrimination,” Frenk stated.
In an announcement to The Occasions Friday, an official from the Division of Well being and Human Companies, which oversees the NIH, stated it might “not fund establishments that promote antisemitism. We’ll use each software we have now to make sure establishments comply with the regulation.”
An NSF spokesperson additionally confirmed the UCLA cuts, saying Friday that the college is not in “alignment with present NSF priorities.” A Division of Vitality spokesperson additionally verified the freezes however didn’t elaborate exterior of pointing to the division’s letter to UCLA.
What comes subsequent
The Occasions spoke to greater than a dozen present and former senior UC leaders along with larger schooling specialists in regards to the speedy deliberations going down this week, which for the primary time have drawn a significant public college system into the orbit of a White Home that has largely centered its ire on Ivy League colleges.
Trump has accused universities of being too liberal, illegally recruiting for variety in ways in which harm white and Asian American college students and college, and being overly tolerant of pro-Palestinian college students who he labels as antisemites aligned with Hamas.
Universities, together with UCLA, have largely denied the accusations, though college officers have admitted that they under-delivered in responding to Jewish scholar issues. Within the final two years, encampments took over small parts of campuses, and, in consequence, have been blamed for denying campus entry to pro-Israel Jews.
In a significant payout introduced Tuesday — earlier than the Justice Division’s findings — UCLA stated it might dole out $6.45 million to settle a federal lawsuit introduced by three Jewish college students and a medical college professor who alleged the college violated their civil rights and enabled antisemitism throughout the pro-Palestinian encampment in 2024. About $2.3 million shall be donated to eight teams that work with Jewish communities, together with the Anti-Defamation League, Chabad and Hillel. One other $320,000 shall be directed to a UCLA initiative to fight antisemitism, and the remainder of the funds will go towards authorized charges.
By way of spokespersons, Frenk and Milliken declined interviews on what subsequent steps UCLA would possibly take. Friday was Milliken’s first day on the job after the long-planned departure of former UC President Michael V. Drake, who will return to instructing and analysis.
However in public remarks this week, Newsom stated he was “reviewing” the Justice Division’s findings and that UC can be “responsive.”
The governor, who spoke throughout an occasion on the former McClellan Air Pressure Base in Sacramento County on Thursday, stated he had a gathering with Drake scheduled that day to debate the Trump administration’s fees.
Newsom didn’t reply particularly to a query from The Occasions about whether or not UC would settle with Trump.
“We’re reviewing the small print of the DOJ’s newest after which that deadline on Tuesday,” the governor stated. “So we’ll be responsive.”
In an announcement Friday, Newsom stated, “Freezing important analysis funding for UCLA — {dollars} that have been going to review invasive ailments, treatment most cancers, and construct new protection applied sciences — makes our nation much less secure. It’s a merciless manipulation to make use of Jewish college students’ actual issues about antisemitism on campus as an excuse to chop tens of millions of {dollars} in grants that have been getting used to make all Individuals safer and more healthy.”
What insiders say
Senior UCLA and UC leaders, who spoke on background as a result of they weren’t approved to debate authorized selections, stated the college has been bracing for this second for months. The college and particular person campuses are underneath a number of federal investigations into alleged use of race in admissions, employment discrimination in opposition to Jews, and civil rights complaints from Jewish college students. On the identical time, leaders stated, they have been hoping the multimillion-dollar settlement with Jewish college students would purchase them time.
“It backfired,” stated one senior administrator at UCLA, reflecting the sense of whiplash felt amongst many who have been interviewed. “Inside hours of saying our settlement, the DOJ was on our again.”
Different senior UC officers stated the system was contemplating suing Trump. It has already sued numerous federal companies or filed briefs in help of lawsuits over widespread grant cuts affecting all main U.S. universities. UC itself, nonetheless, has in a roundabout way challenged the president’s platform of aggressively punishing elite colleges for alleged discrimination.
It’s unclear if a go well with or settlement may wipe out all remaining investigations.
Mark Yudof, a former UC president who led the system from 2008 to 2013, stated he felt the Trump administration was concentrating on a public college as a method to “make an announcement” in regards to the president’s larger schooling goals going past Ivy League establishments.
“However this isn’t Columbia,” Yudof stated, referring to the $221-million settlement the New York campus just lately reached with the White Home to resolve investigations over alleged antisemitism amid its response to pro-Palestinian protests.
On Wednesday, Brown College additionally got here to a $50-million settlement with the White Home. The Brown cost will go towards Rhode Island workforce growth packages. Harvard can be negotiating a cope with the federal government over related accusations relating to antisemitism.
“The College of California is far more complicated,” stated Yudof, who lives in Florida and likewise led the College of Texas and College of Minnesota. “For one, a difficulty that will have an effect on UCLA isn’t going to have an effect on UC Merced or UC Riverside. However do you come to an settlement on all campuses? If there’s a settlement cost, does it have an effect on all campuses, relying on the associated fee?”
George Blumenthal, a former chancellor of UC Santa Cruz, stated he “simply can’t see UC making the type of deal that Columbia did or that Harvard contemplates. Committing public funds to Washington to the tune of tens or lots of of million {dollars} strikes me as politically untenable in California.”
Professional-Palestinian UCLA teams stated they don’t agree with the premise of negotiations. They level out that many protesters in final 12 months’s encampment have been Jewish and argue that the protest — the main target of federal complaints — was not antisemitic.
“We reject this cynical weaponization of antisemitism, and the misinformation marketing campaign spinning requires Palestinian freedom as antisemitic. We should title this for what it’s: a thinly-veiled try and punish supporters of Palestinian freedom, and to advance the long-standing conservative aim of dismantling larger schooling,” stated an announcement from Graeme Blair, a UCLA affiliate professor of political science, on behalf of UCLA College for Justice in Palestine.
The larger image
Greater schooling specialists say UC’s determination would set a nationwide precedent. The college’s funds embody greater than $50 billion in working revenues, $180 billion in investments — together with endowment, retirement, and dealing capital portfolios — and smaller campus-level endowments. The funds help services throughout the state, together with a number of tutorial well being facilities, funding properties and campuses, in addition to tens of hundreds of former staff enrolled in retirement plans.
Dozens of public campuses throughout the U.S. are underneath investigation or stress from the White Home to atone for alleged wrongdoing to Jewish college students or to vary admissions, scholarship packages and protest guidelines and extra. However UC has lengthy been a standard-bearer, together with in tutorial and protest freedoms.
“If you’re Trump, your goal of Harvard or Brown is way simpler — a snooty elite — than a public, even a UCLA or Berkeley,” stated Rick Hess, an schooling skilled with the conservative American Enterprise Institute.
Kenneth Marcus, who served as assistant secretary for civil rights within the Schooling Division throughout Trump’s first time period, stated there can be advantages for UCLA and the UC system to enter right into a “systemwide settlement that might allow all people to place this behind themselves.”
The Justice Division’s Tuesday letter stated it was investigating all campuses however solely issuing findings of violations thus far at UCLA.
Marcus, chairman of the Washington, D.C.-based Louis D. Brandeis Heart for Human Rights Underneath Legislation, stated a systemwide settlement would “present the federal authorities with assurances that the regents are making modifications throughout the board.”
Workers author Taryn Luna in Sacramento contributed to this report.
