The Trump administration froze $584 million in UCLA research grants after alleging the university was "deliberately indifferent" to Jewish students' safety during campus protests. Justice Department officials proposed a settlement demanding $1 billion in fines plus $200 million in payouts and major policy changes; UC leadership has remained publicly cautious. Faculty-led lawsuits secured preliminary injunctions that have restored over $580 million in funding for now, while appeals and negotiations continue and the university remains in prolonged uncertainty.
No Deal, No Defiance: UCLA Funding Fight Stalls as Faculty Lawsuits Take the Lead
President Donald Trump's administration this year pressured elite universities by threatening or cutting federal support — a campaign that forced schools to choose between negotiating or litigating. When the administration targeted the University of California system and UCLA specifically, UC leadership adopted a cautious, mostly behind-the-scenes posture. Rather than mount a full public confrontation, university officials have largely allowed faculty-led legal challenges to take the lead.
Faculty Lawsuits Restore Funding, While UC Leadership Stays Reserved
After Florida Attorney General Pamela Bondi accused UCLA of "deliberate indifference" to the rights and safety of Jewish students and faculty amid protests over Israel's war in Gaza, federal science and health agencies announced they were withholding $584 million in research grants — more than half the funding researchers expected to receive. Within days, Justice Department officials proposed a sweeping settlement that would have required UCLA to pay $1 billion in fines, $200 million in legal payouts, and to adopt major policy changes restricting protests, ending certain race- or ethnicity-based scholarships, and screening some international applicants for so-called "anti-American" activity.
Rather than immediately negotiating a public settlement, UC officials have mostly worked behind closed doors. James Milliken, recently appointed president of the UC system, and a subgroup of regents have met in private, while the broader leadership has given limited public detail about negotiation strategy. According to a UC official who spoke on condition of anonymity, talks showed little movement after August.
Legal Action Led By Faculty And Outside Counsel
Seeing limited institutional action, UC faculty and outside counsels filed lawsuits. In June, Claudia Polsky, director of the environmental law clinic at UC Berkeley, brought a class action on behalf of researchers whose grants had already been reduced. In September, a coalition of faculty, staff, students and labor unions filed a second suit challenging funding suspensions affecting UCLA and other UC campuses. U.S. District Judge Rita F. Lin issued preliminary injunctions in both cases that temporarily restored funding and limited the administration's ability to suspend grants from the university. Collectively, those rulings have restored more than $580 million in research support to date. Last week, however, a federal appeals court allowed the administration to proceed with some earlier grant suspensions that predate the larger UCLA actions.
Campus And Political Pressures
Faculty plaintiffs and their attorneys say they have had minimal contact with UC leadership; many researchers say they were driven to sue because they felt the university had not adequately protected academic freedom and institutional autonomy. Some state officials and Democratic lawmakers — including Gov. Gavin Newsom — publicly oppose any settlement that would concede to the administration's demands. Newsom's office praised faculty efforts to defend academic freedom, and several state legislators warned the UC system against negotiating concessions.
Other universities have taken different paths: Columbia University negotiated a $220 million settlement and some policy changes, while Harvard has both sued the administration and engaged in talks. Observers say the UC system's status as a large public institution operating in a heavily Democratic state complicates any potential deal and raises political stakes that smaller private institutions do not face.
What’s Next
UC spokespeople say the system has pursued legal and administrative measures to defend its financial and academic interests and that some efforts are necessarily discreet to preserve negotiation leverage. Faculty and external advocates argue UC could do more to coordinate with and support the lawsuits that have thus far yielded judicial relief. The case is likely to continue through appeals and negotiations, leaving UCLA and its researchers in a condition of sustained uncertainty about long-term funding and policy outcomes.
Key fact: The UC system comprises 10 campuses, serves nearly 300,000 students, and receives roughly one-tenth of all federal research funding.
