The Trump administration has suspended $584 million in federal grants to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), nearly twice the previously known amount, the school’s Chancellor Julio Frenk announced Wednesday.
UCLA is the first public university to be targeted under the administration’s crackdown on alleged civil rights violations involving antisemitism and affirmative action. The Trump administration has previously frozen federal funding for private institutions under similar allegations.
“If these funds remain suspended, it will be devastating for UCLA and for Americans across the nation,” said Chancellor Frenk, citing the university’s history of groundbreaking research.
The frozen grants affect major programs funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the
Department of Energy, Frenk said.
According to the US Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, UCLA violated 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.”
The decision follows a $6 million settlement between UCLA and three Jewish students and a Jewish professor, who alleged the university violated their civil rights by failing to intervene when pro-Palestinian protesters blocked their access to classrooms and other campus facilities in 2024.
As part of the settlement, UCLA agreed to,
Contribute $2.3 million to eight organisations that combat antisemitism and support the Jewish community on campus.
Create a new Office of Campus and Community Safety to manage protest activity.
Implement new campus policies addressing bias and inclusivity.
Frenk, whose Jewish father and grandparents fled Nazi Germany, and whose wife is the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, also launched a campus-wide initiative to address antisemitism and anti-Israeli bias.
University of California President James B. Milliken criticised the administration’s decision to withhold funds.
“These cuts do nothing to address antisemitism,” Milliken said.
“Moreover, the extensive work that UCLA and the entire University of California have taken to combat antisemitism has apparently been ignored.”
“The cuts would be a death knell for innovative work that saves lives, grows our economy, and fortifies our national security. It is in our country’s best interest that funding be restored.”
Milliken confirmed that the university system is in talks with the administration over the allegations against UCLA.
The case echoes a similar move against Columbia University, which last month agreed to pay $200 million to settle federal investigations into antidiscrimination violations. In that agreement, more than $400 million in research grantswere restored.
The Trump administration has indicated it plans to use the Columbia settlement as a model for enforcing civil rights compliance across other universities, with financial penalties now expected in similar cases.
Erizia Rubyjeana
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