Update: The Trump administration is seeking a $1 billion settlement from the University of California, Los Angeles, CNN has exclusively learned, marking the latest effort by the White House to shape higher education and extract significant concessions from universities.
Officials from UCLA have returned to the negotiating table, a source familiar with the matter said, and have made clear they would like to reach a deal to restore that funding.
The Trump administration, in turn, is laying its marker for a high-dollar settlement.
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Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
The federal government suspended $584 million worth of grants to the University of California–Los Angeles (UCLA), the university’s Chancellor, Julio Frenk, said in an Aug. 6 statement to community members.
“If these funds remain suspended, it will be devastating for UCLA,” he said.
The funding cancellation affects UCLA departments that rely on grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Energy.
“The suspension of these funds is not only a loss to the researchers who rely on critical grants,“ he said. ”It is a loss for Americans across the nation whose work, health, and future depend on our groundbreaking research and scholarship.”
The university announced the funding cancellation on July 31 without identifying the exact amount to be cut.
The announcement was made after the Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a July 29 statement that UCLA violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by “acting with deliberate indifference in creating a hostile educational environment for Jewish and Israeli students.”
The DOJ said that UCLA failed to appropriately respond to complaints about Jewish and Israeli students facing “severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive harassment and abuse” on its campus since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack against Israel by the Hamas terrorist group.
“This disgusting breach of civil rights against students will not stand: DOJ will force UCLA to pay a heavy price for putting Jewish Americans at risk and continue our ongoing investigations into other campuses in the UC system,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in the statement.
Under Title VI, the federal government has the authority to withhold funding from educational institutions found to be discriminating on the basis of race, national origin, or religion.
In a July 29 notice of violation issued to UCLA, the DOJ said that Jewish students reported being assaulted or denied access to campus facilities due to their faith. In one instance, a student was knocked down by protestors, suffered a head injury, and had to be hospitalized, the DOJ stated.
The DOJ gave UCLA until Aug. 5 to reach a voluntary agreement resolving the issue, failing which, the agency planned to file a federal lawsuit against the university by Sept. 2, the notice said.
In the July 31 message, Frenk said that UCLA has taken “robust actions” to make its campus safe for all students.
Earlier this year, the university instituted new policies to manage campus protests and has taken action against conduct violating the institution’s policies, he said.
UCLA has launched an initiative aimed at extinguishing anti-Semitism on the campus “completely and definitively,” Frenk wrote.
“As part of this initiative, UCLA is implementing recommendations of the Task Force to Combat Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias,“ he wrote. ”These include enhancing relevant training and education, improving the complaint system, ensuring enforcement of current and new laws and policies and cooperating with stakeholders.”
Frenk said federal research grants are not “handouts,” that researchers from the university “compete fiercely” to secure such funding, and that the work conducted by these researchers is crucial to America’s safety, health, and economic future.
On Aug. 4, senior leaders at the university held a town hall attended by 3,150 faculty and staff to discuss the issue, following which the university estimated that grant suspensions by federal agencies would put $584 million in funding at risk, Frenk said.
“We are doing everything we can to protect the interests of faculty, students, and staff—and to defend our values and principles,“ he said. ”The UC Board of Regents and the UC Office of the President are providing counsel as we actively evaluate our best course of action.”
Removing Discrimination, Harassment
Other U.S. universities have agreed to adhere to the federal government’s policies, often after the Trump administration threatened federal funding cuts.
Columbia University was, until recently, in conflict with the administration over the issue of alleged anti-Semitic incidents on campus. In March, government agencies cut $400 million in university funding because of this issue.
Last month, the university announced it would pay $200 million to resolve allegations that it discriminated against Jewish students, securing restoration of federal grants in return.
“While Columbia does not admit to wrongdoing with this resolution agreement, the institution’s leaders have recognized, repeatedly, that Jewish students and faculty have experienced painful, unacceptable incidents, and that reform was and is needed,” the university said, announcing its deal with the federal government.
On July 30, Brown University said it reached an agreement with the federal government after being in conflict over the issue of violating Title IX, which prohibits sexual discrimination in any education program or activity receiving federal funding.
Under the deal, the university committed to making policy adjustments such as using the Trump administration’s definitions of “male” and “female” for athletes and housing on campus. This includes installing female-only floors at dormitories and offering male and female bathrooms. The university also vowed to take measures to address anti-Semitism on campus.
The agreement restores federal funding to the university for research and ends the government’s investigation into racial and sexual discrimination.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon applauded the deal.
“Restoring our nation’s higher education institutions to places dedicated to truth-seeking, academic merit, and civil debate—where all students can learn free from discrimination and harassment—will be a lasting legacy of the Trump administration, one that will benefit students and American society for generations to come,” she said.
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