The grant, which supported “accelerating equitable decarbonization” research, decried as “woke” by U.S. transportation secretary

By JORDAN POLTORAK— campus@theaggie.org

United States Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced on Friday, May 2 that he would terminate a $12 million grant given to UC Davis’ National Center for Sustainable Transportation for being “woke.” 

The grant was used to fund “accelerating equitable decarbonization that benefits both the transportation system and the well-being of people in overburdened and historically disadvantaged communities,” according to the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies website. 

UC Davis was one of seven institutions that had their “woke university grants” revoked, according to Duffy, UC Davis’ grant being the largest. City College of New York and University of South California both lost out on $9 million for their grants. New York University, San José State University, University of New Orleans and Johns Hopkins University each had $6 million in grant funding terminated. 

 “These grants were used to advance a radical [diversity, equity and inclusion] (DEI) and green agenda that were both wasteful and ran counter to the transportation priorities of the American people,” the U.S. Department of Transportation website reads. 

The National Center for Sustainable Transportation (NCST) grant totaled $20 million with $4 million per year over five years. Research focused on three areas: improving vehicle technology, building better infrastructure and changing travel demands to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The NCST is one of five national centers funded by the Department of Transportation. 

The NCST is led by the Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS) which is the leading university center in the world on sustainable transportation with over 60 faculty and researchers and more than 120 graduate students. 

“Much of our work was in line with the previous administration and their priorities,” Susan Handy, director for NCST and principal investigator on the federal grant, said. “We were addressing the [Joe] Biden administration in our proposal. The current administration has very different priorities so we knew we had some vulnerability there. But we do a lot of work that is consistent with the current administration, with respect to the transportation realm. Projects like safety, impacts of transportation on the economy and some of my work has to do with the degree that widening highways reduces congestion.” 

Her message to students is to not give up hope. 

“A lot of good work will still continue at the Institute of Transportation Studies,” Handy said. “We receive funding from a lot of different sources including California agencies. We want to continue to fund the students we have committed to funding. We will have to work to find resources in other places that can support the important work that needs to be done.” 

A UC Davis spokesperson provided the following comment:

“The university has received dozens of notices from federal agencies related to specific grants or projects since the change in the federal administration,” the spokesperson said. “The affected grants cover a wide range of areas, including research related to cancer and Alzheimer’s disease, food production and safety, renewable energy, basic science and a great deal more.

  The federal notices vary significantly in their intent and need for action. In each case, the Office of Research is working directly with the principal investigator and campus leadership to determine the appropriate course of action. 

In the case of research terminations, this may include filing an appeal directly with the agency, litigating matters in court and negotiating a financial settlement prior to winding down the research. These processes can take months and prevent us from sharing information publicly until complete.   

   UC Davis is a powerhouse for breakthroughs and impact. Our research plays a vital role in building the region’s economy and contributes to our nation’s global leadership in technology and innovation. As we navigate the complex landscape, we remain committed to maintaining and uplifting a robust research enterprise that fully serves our mission of teaching, research and public service.”

This is a developing story. Follow The Aggie for continued updates.

Written by: Jordan Poltorak — campus@theaggie.org

UC ethnic studies educators, concerned about censorship of Palestine in curricula, say the failed proposal faced a “procedurally irregular” journey

By KHADEEJAH KHAN — campus@theaggie.org

Students and University of California ethnic studies faculty have been advocating for an ethnic studies admissions requirement since 2020. A proposal that was initially intended to take one year took five — and advocates have linked this delay to the UC’s alleged efforts to censor conversations surrounding Palestine in the state’s K-12 curriculum. 

The proposed Area A-G/H Ethnic Studies would have required high school students to take a non-additive, one-semester ethnic studies course for admission into one of the UC’s nine undergraduate campuses. It was rejected by a vote of the UC Academic Senate late last month.

Ethnic studies emerged out of students protesting United States imperialism in the Vietnam War as they demanded education that critically analyzed systems of imperialism, capitalism and settler colonialism. 

“Ethnic studies — it’s about reality,” UC Davis Cultural Studies doctoral candidate Beshara Kehdi said. “It’s about history. It’s about why our communities are here and why they are the way that they are. We can’t explain those things without referring to the violent displacements resulting from racism, capitalism and ongoing imperial wars.”

Timeline of Area A-G/H Ethnic Studies proposal 

Initially, the Area A-G/H Ethnic Studies proposal was unanimously approved by the UC Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools (BOARS) in November 2020. A 20-person Ethnic Studies Faculty Workgroup was then appointed to develop new ethnic studies course guidelines to recommend to BOARS.

In November 2021, BOARS approved the recommended course criteria by a vote of 10-1, with one abstention, which would send the proposal to the Academic Council for consideration. The Academic Council sent the proposal for systemwide review, and by March 2022, the proposal was sent back to BOARS with feedback from each campus.

At this time in the process, Li Cai, a UC Los Angeles professor serving on BOARS, broke Academic Senate policy by leaking internal emails, according to a 2022 article from the Daily Bruin. Cai sent communications on Area A-G/H Ethnic Studies to opponents of the proposal, including Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, a former UC Santa Cruz faculty member and co-founder of the AMCHA Initiative, a non-profit organization committed to combating antisemitism in higher education.

The AMCHA Initiative previously released a letter in 2022 alleging that the proposal would “unleash hatred and bigotry, especially antisemitism.” However, in a 2014 letter, Jewish studies professors across the UC system described AMCHA’s definition of antisemitism as too broad. In their letter, they also critique AMCHA’s methods of monitoring, documenting, boycotting and doxxing of professors and students who are pro-Palestine and anti-Zionist in a way that can “deaden the kind of spirited academic exchange that is the lifeblood of the university.”

A press release issued by the UC Ethnic Studies Faculty Council in 2022 rejects claims of antisemitism and questions the influence of “racist external pressures that inform [UC’s] deliberation around its proposed A-G ethnic studies requirement.”

“We also understand that the UC caved to spurious charges, in some cases advanced by people and organizations with a known history of racism, that our proposed criteria are ‘anti-Semitic’ and disparaging to Jewish Americans,” the press release reads. “This is a LIE. Nowhere in our course criteria do we mention Israel, Jewish people, or Judaism, much less any specific religion.”

In June 2023, BOARS approved the revised A-G ethnic studies course criteria by a vote of 9-2 with one abstention. While the vote was solely focused on the content of the criteria, members of BOARS shared concerns regarding implementation and access, according to meeting minutes.

BOARS was to vote on the proposal again in November 2023, but for the first time, the committee voted against sending the criteria to the Academic Council, despite it having previously been voted on and sent to the body.

Members of the UC Ethnic Studies Faculty Council had previously described this voting process as “procedurally irregular,” noting that the first time BOARS voted in opposition to the proposal was following the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks, despite having received strong support in past votes.

“We have to raise the concerns in terms of why this requirement has been handled and subjected to this systemwide review in a completely different way than other requirements,”  Natalia Deeb-Sossa, a UC Davis professor of Chicano and Chicana Studies, said.

Former UC Academic Senate Chair James Steintrager said the Area A-G/H Ethnic Studies proposal was concerning to the Regents due to its association with an October 2023 letter written by the Ethnic Studies Faculty Council, according to meeting minutes.

In the letter, members of the council rejected UC administrative communications that they allege “misrepresent the unfolding genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and thereby contribute to the racist and dehumanizing erasure of Palestinian daily reality.” The Ethnic Studies Faculty Council also called on the Regents to “uplift the Palestinian freedom struggle, and to stand against Israel’s war crimes against the ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Palestinian people.” 

“I will do everything in my power to never let that happen,” UC Regent Jay Sures said in an open letter, calling the faculty council’s letter “appalling and repugnant.” 

During that same period of time, Abigail Thompson, a UC Davis professor of mathematics and member of the UC Academic Senate, wrote a letter to the editor of The Davis Enterprise on campus protests by Students for Justice in Palestine titled, “Recognize True Evil.”

Thompson did not respond to requests for comment.

Dylan Rodríguez, a UC Riverside professor and member of the UC Ethnic Studies Faculty Council, has been a strong advocate for Arab American and Palestinian curricula in ethnic studies. He considers the opposition he has faced for his advocacy “well beyond censorship,” describing emailed threats of violence and death he had received.

“Anti-Palestinian racism has actually defined the terrain of the struggle [of advocating for Area A-G/H Ethnic Studies],” Rodríguez said.

Despite BOARS voting against the proposal in November 2023, the Academic Council sent the proposal for systemwide review in January 2024 as a response to the previously approved request to consider the proposal. In a December meeting that year, the Assembly of the Academic Senate voted to postpone the vote on the proposal to April 2025. 

Current status of the A-G/H Ethnic Studies proposal 

On April 23, the assembly rejected sending the ethnic studies proposal to UC Regents and President Michael V. Drake by a vote of 29-12, with 12 abstentions.

For that meeting, the UC Students Association filed a petition to indicate student support for the proposal. Christine Hong, a UC Santa Cruz professor of critical race and ethnic studies, believes that the assembly’s vote is not only a rejection of the proposal but a show of its failure to serve student needs. 

“We should be humbled before the fact that students have brought this forward and told us what they need,” Hong said. “We should be humbled before the fact that this is the sole field that has consistently been initiated by students — students who are oftentimes the most vulnerable within the institutional settings in which they’re fighting for ethnic studies.”

As ethnic studies advocates like Kehdi look toward the future of their discipline, the inclusion and expansion of Arab American and Palestinian studies remains essential in their advocacy. 

“Whenever we see racial progress as in the expansion of Palestine and Arab American studies like in California, we see racist progress and Zionist pressures to eliminate them and turn the clocks back,” Kehdi said. “Genocide is the consequence of racism, and Israel’s U.S.-backed genocide in Palestine continues. There is no going back.”

Despite the outcome of the vote, the fight for ethnic studies continues — a characteristic that ethnic studies scholars believe define the movement. 

“Ethnic studies is a grassroots struggle,” Sean Malloy, a UC Merced professor of critical race and ethnic studies, said. “We can win and lose individual battles, but the strength of this movement is in the community and student centered struggle — something they can never take away from us.”

This article is the second part of a continuing series on ethnic studies requirements for UC admission. Read the first part online.

Written by: Khadeejah Khan — campus@theaggie.org

Input is requested from community members before a final report is submitted to UC leadership

By JESSICA YUNG — campus@theaggie.org

Several University of California bodies, including the Office of the President (UCOP), the Academic Senate and the UC Provost, have launched a workgroup looking into whether all UC undergraduate campuses should operate under a common academic calendar. The initiative does not seek to endorse either the semester or the quarter system, but is instead looking at the potential benefits of adopting a shared systemwide calendar.

The program, according to a letter from the workgroup, is an “information gathering exercise.” The final report will aim to “help answer the question of whether UC should return to a common academic calendar, but it will not recommend one calendar over another.”

Currently, all but two of the nine UC undergraduate campuses use the quarter system; UC Berkeley and UC Merced use the semester system. The workgroup is not examining the calendar of UC San Francisco, a graduate medical school or any other UC-affiliated graduate program.

Stett Holbrook, the associate director of Strategic and Critical Communications for UCOP, described the workgroup as a way to expand the UC’s mission.

“In September 2024, UC’s systemwide Provost and Academic Senate Chair formed an Academic Planning Council (APC) workgroup with faculty, staff and student representatives to examine the current academic calendars and calendar features that can advance the University’s teaching, research and public service mission,” Holbrook said.

Cindy Brown, the executive communication specialist in the Office of the Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor, stated that the workgroup has produced a draft report on the proposal.

“[The draft report summarizes] information collected on existing and optional calendar features, a proposal of an alternate quarter calendar, factors to consider before making any calendar changes and optional common calendars to consider,” Brown said in a press release.

The draft report also notes issues with the system using different calendars at different campuses, including varying start and end dates and other complications to cohesion and collaboration within the UC. These include “providing comparable UC student access to summer jobs and internships, expanding cross-campus or dual enrollment to unique language courses or programs, and leveraging resources across campuses.”

The UC previously operated on a common semester calendar before UC campuses converted to a common quarter calendar in 1996. In 1983, UC Berkeley converted back to the semester system, citing opportunities to improve academic preparation and student success; UC Merced opened under the semester calendar in 2005.

The draft report notes that in 2026, the California State University (CSU) system will have all of its 23 campuses on a semester calendar, completing a 13-year effort to have six of its campuses converted from quarters to semesters. The change will mean that all CSU campuses and 113 of 116 California Community College campuses will be on a semester calendar.

The workgroup took public comments, meeting with representatives to come to their conclusions.
“To produce this material, the workgroup drew upon panel discussions with individuals from UC student affairs, related campus offices and representatives from peer institutions that have already completed or are undergoing calendar conversion,” Brown said.

At UC Davis, flyers on this proposal have appeared on various television and advertising screens across campus spaces, including at the Memorial Union and Silo.

One transfer student, Brian Vuong, a third-year human development major, detailed his thoughts.

“My community college had a semester system,” Vuong said. “I think the benefits of the system is that you get more time to do your work. If you are behind, you can have more time to catch up. You don’t have to worry about tight deadlines. You don’t have to worry about taking a lot of classes in a series.”

The workgroup is asking that students and other campus community members share their opinions about this proposal so university leaders can hear further feedback. Those interested are invited to fill out an online survey or email calendar@ucop.edu.

The comment period runs through May 30. A final report incorporating feedback will be produced for UC leadership to consider, according to Holbrook.

Written by: Jessica Yung — campus@theaggie.org