UCLA says Trump admin suspended $584 MILLION in federal grants

UCLA's chancellor Julio Frenk issued a letter to the school community saying that the school had "received a notice that the federal government" had suspended research funding to the prominent California school. "This is not only a loss to the researchers who rely on critical grants. It is a loss for Americans across the nation whose work, health, and future depend on the groundbreaking work we do," said Frenk.

He went on to say that "the news we received is so deeply disappointing," after describing the projects that research from the federal government had funded. These include planetary scientists' research in "searching for asteroids and other objects in space that could threaten Earth," as well as finding ways to treat diseases.

"UCLA researchers," Frenk said, "helped create the Internet with support from the Department of Defense, and are now building new technologies that could fuel entire industries and help safeguard our soldiers."

"With this decision, hundreds of grants may be lost, adversely affecting the lives and life-changing work of UCLA researchers, faculty and staff," Frenk said. "In its notice to us, the federal government claims antisemitism and bias as the reasons. This far-reaching penalty of defunding life-saving research does nothing to address any alleged discrimination."

The school was the site of violent, antisemitic Gaza emcampments following the massacre of 1,200 in Israel by the Palestinian terror group Hamas. Many students at America's most prestigious colleges blamed Israel and Jews for the massacre of those individuals.

UCLA is the first public university targeted by the Trump administration. The Trump administration has been working with Columbia University, Harvard University, Brown University, and the University of Pennsylvania, among others to get those schools to correct the civil rights violations on their campuses, both from antisemitism and from forcing women to accommodate men in their sex-segregated spaces and athletics, a violation of Title IX.

"We share the goal of eradicating antisemitism across society," said Frenk. "Antisemitism has no place on our campus, nor does any form of discrimination. We recognize that we can improve, and I am committed to doing so. Confronting the scourge of antisemitism effectively calls for thoughtfulness, commitment, and sustained effort — and UCLA has taken robust actions to make our campus a safe and welcoming environment for all students."

Frenk said that the school created an Office of Campus and Community Safety and an Initiative to Combat Antisemitism. During some of the campus occupations, there were violent clashes between Gaza occupiers and Jewish students, and on more than one occasion, the LAPD was called in.

The school was forced to settle with three Jewish students and a professor for $6.13 million over civil rights violations. "These cuts do nothing to address antisemitism," said new head of the University of California system James B. Milliken. "Moreover, the extensive work that UCLA and the entire University of California have taken to combat antisemitism has apparently been ignored."

In defending the school's use of federal funds, Frenk said, "Federal research grants are not handouts. Our researchers compete fiercely for these grants, proposing work that the government itself deems vital to the country’s health, safety and economic future. Grants lead to medical breakthroughs, economic advancement, improved national security and global competitiveness — these are national priorities."