Trump administration seeking $1 billion settlement from UCLA over antisemitism claims
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The Trump administration is seeking $1 billion from UCLA over allegations of antisemitism in what could reportedly be the largest settlement between the administration and an institution of higher education, a White House official said Friday.
The administration claims the university violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which protects against employment discrimination related to race, color, religion, sex, national origin or shared ancestry, including Jewish and Israeli identity, according to a report from the Los Angeles Times.
In the settlement, UCLA would pay the billion-dollar fine in installments over time in addition to contributing $172 million to pay students and other individuals impacted by alleged discrimination, the Times said, citing sources.
The agreement would also require a resolution monitor to oversee the school, as well as a new senior administrator focused on compliance with anti-discrimination laws, according to CNN.
University of California President James B. Milliken said in a statement Friday that they are reviewing the proposal from the Department of Justice. The statement reads as follows:
"Earlier this week, we offered to engage in good faith dialogue with the Department to protect the University and its critical research mission. As a public university, we are stewards of taxpayer resources and a payment of this scale would completely devastate our country's greatest public university system as well as inflict great harm on our students and all Californians. Americans across this great nation rely on the vital work of UCLA and the UC system for technologies and medical therapies that save lives, grow the U.S. economy, and protect our national security."
The settlement proposal, which was sent to UC on Friday, comes days after the Trump administration froze hundreds of science, medical and research grants at UCLA. The frozen grants are worth more than half a billion dollars, according to the university.
UCLA is the first public university whose federal grants have been targeted by the administration over allegations of civil rights violations related to antisemitism and affirmative action. The Trump administration has frozen or paused federal funding over similar allegations against private colleges.
UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk addressed the freeze in a letter last Thursday.
"UCLA received a notice that the federal government, through its control of the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other agencies, is suspending certain research funding to UCLA," Frenk said.
News of the federal grants being suspended came the same week UCLA agreed to settle a $6 million lawsuit that claimed the university allowed pro-Palestinian protesters to block Jewish students on campus during demonstrations last year.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
