The University of California, Los Angeles, confirmed it has lost access to key federal research funding following accusations from the Justice Department that it failed to protect Jewish and Israeli students during recent campus protests.
The announcement comes in the wake of a federal determination that UCLA did not do enough to safeguard students amid widespread pro-Palestinian demonstrations last spring and summer, which erupted at UCLA and other universities across the country in response to Israel’s military operations in Gaza.
Though the university did not specify the total amount of funding affected, officials indicated that hundreds of research grants may be impacted.
“In its notice to us, the federal government claims anti-Semitism and bias as the reasons. This far-reaching penalty of defunding life-saving research does nothing to address any alleged discrimination,” UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk wrote in a letter Thursday to the campus community.
Frenk explained that agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health were involved in the decision, and that some federally supported research projects would now be suspended.
“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,” he added.
UCLA is among dozens of universities across the United States that have come under scrutiny from the Trump administration, which has launched civil rights and constitutional investigations in response to campus protests calling for divestment from Israel.
Since returning to office in January, President Donald Trump has stepped up pressure on elite institutions, accusing them of failing to protect Jewish students and improperly enforcing diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.
On Tuesday, the Justice Department issued a letter to UCLA stating that the university had 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.”
That same day, UCLA also agreed to a multimillion-dollar legal settlement, which includes a $6.13 million payout to three Jewish students and a professor who claimed the university violated their civil rights by permitting the protests to continue.
In response, Chancellor Frenk reiterated UCLA’s commitment to fighting anti-Semitism and stated the school has taken concrete steps to manage protests more effectively and launched an initiative aimed at combating anti-Jewish discrimination.
