The proposal to restore funding suspended over alleged antisemitism has been criticized by UC and local leaders
By RIVERS STOUT— campus@theaggie.org
The Donald Trump administration is calling on the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to accept a $1 billion settlement, alongside other political concessions, to restore federal funding grants. These grants were frozen following a Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation, wherein the school was found to have failed to address alleged antisemitism.
As reported by CNN in early August, proposed political concessions from UCLA would include guaranteed single-sex housing for women and recognition for athletes assigned female at birth, at the expense of transgender athletes. It would also require UCLA’s hospital and medical school to stop providing gender-affirming care. The settlement also calls for an end to race and ethnicity-based scholarships along with changes to protest policy.
On July 29, a DOJ investigation found UCLA to be in violation of federal law by “violat[ing] the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by acting with deliberate indifference in creating a hostile educational environment for Jewish and Israeli students,” according to a DOJ press release.
On Aug. 12, a federal judge partially restored some of the $584 million in grant funding to UCLA, which was suspended by the Trump administration as part of a class-action suit. This suit was independently pursued by UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley professors over earlier grant cancellations, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The proposed settlement has received criticism from top university leaders, including recently appointed UC President James Milliken.
“As a public university, we are stewards of taxpayer resources and a payment of this scale would completely devastate our country’s greatest public university system as well as inflict great harm on our students and all Californians,” Milliken said in a statement.
Governor Gavin Newsom also firmly rejected the idea of accepting the settlement.
“It’s not just about UCLA, it’s about anybody or any institution that disagrees with them,” Newsom said at a Politico Summit on Aug. 27. “So how could you possibly accept the fine? A fine for what? The guy who had dinner with Nick Fuentes, telling us about antisemitism, are you kidding me?”
The university received support from Hillel at UCLA, which was one of the organizations that recently received part of a $2.3 million settlement from the UC system, stemming from a lawsuit alleging campus-enabled antisemitism.
“I’ve spoken with students who have felt unsafe or isolated, and I’ve seen the changes UCLA has made firsthand to resolve their concerns,” Howard Welinsky, board member for UCLA Hillel and former chair of Jewish Public Affairs Council of California, said in a press release. “Jewish students want to feel seen, heard, and protected, and UCLA is moving in the right direction. Pulling federal support will put UCLA 10 steps behind the effort to curb antisemitism.”
The UC system receives over $17 billion annually from the federal government, including $5.7 billion in research funding and $1.9 billion in student financial aid, according to a letter by Milliken to state lawmakers on the effects of federal funding cuts.
“Classes and student services would be reduced, patients would be turned away, tens of
thousands of jobs would be lost,” the letter reads. “We would see UC’s world-renowned researchers leaving our state for other more seemingly stable opportunities in the U.S. or abroad.”
“If the University loses the federal funding I mentioned earlier, we would need at least $4-5 billion per year to minimize the damage of that loss,” Milliken said.
UC Davis has also been under investigation by the United States Department of Education for alleged antisemitism since March of this year. No UC Davis grants have been frozen over the investigation as of time of publication.
Written by: Rivers Stout — campus@theaggie.org
