The Trump administration is demanding a $1 billion settlement from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to restore federal research funding, according to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Friday’s demand follows a Justice Department Civil Rights Division finding that UCLA violated the Equal Protection Clause and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by demonstrating “deliberate indifference” to antisemitism targeting Jewish and Israeli students on campus. As a result, the administration has frozen $584 million in federal grants.
UCLA, the first public university to face such measures, is reviewing the proposal. The university previously settled with students and a professor for over $6 million over related claims. In response, UCLA established a new Office of Campus and Community Safety, allocated $2.3 million toward organizations combating antisemitism, and implemented updated protest-management policies.
UC President James Milliken warned that such a steep settlement could devastate public university finances, saying it would “inflict great harm on our students and all Californians.”
The Los Angeles Times reports, California Gov. Gavin Newsom isn’t taking the exorbitant fee lying down — calling it “extortion” and vowing to sue the White House:
“We’ll sue,” Newsom said during a news conference with Texas legislators over California’s effort to counter a contentious Republican redistricting plan in that state.
President Trump is “trying to silence academic freedom” by “attacking one of the most important public institutions in the United States of America,” Newsom said, adding that he would “stand tall and push back against that, and I believe every member of California Legislature feels the same way.”
The federal government on Friday said UC should pay the billion-dollar fine in installments and contribute $172 million to a fund for Jewish students and other individuals affected by alleged violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. The statute covers illegal discrimination related to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, including Jewish and Israeli identity.
In addition, the Trump administration demanded sweeping campus changes encompassing protests, admissions, gender identity in sports and housing, the abolition of scholarships for racial or ethnic groups, and submission to an outside monitor over the agreement, according to four UC senior officials who have reviewed the proposal.
“He has threatened us through extortion with a billion-dollar fine unless we do his bidding,” Newsom said. “We will not be complicit in this kind of attack on academic freedom at this extraordinary public institution. We are not like some of those other institutions.”
The escalated action mirrors a broader federal crackdown on elite universities. Columbia and Brown previously settled for $200 million and $50 million, respectively, to restore their research funding. Harvard is also under intense pressure, potentially facing over $2 billion in settlement.
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UCLA wants the “academic freedom” to discriminate against Jews and evidently white people too so they won’t be “cancelled” by bullying loudmouthed pinheaded wannabe commies or what Lenin called “useful idiots.”
So Newsom thinks antisemitism is academic freedom?