By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump’s administration has frozen $584 million in federal funding for the College of California, Los Angeles, UCLA mentioned on Wednesday after the federal government reprimanded the college over pro-Palestinian protests.
The Trump administration has threatened to chop federal funds for universities over pro-Palestinian protests in opposition to U.S. ally Israel’s conflict in Gaza. The federal government alleges universities, together with UCLA, allowed antisemitism throughout the protests.
Massive demonstrations passed off at UCLA final 12 months. Protesters, together with some Jewish teams, say the federal government wrongly equates their criticism of Israel’s army assault in Gaza and its occupation of Palestinian territories with antisemitism, and their advocacy for Palestinian rights with help for extremism.
“Presently, a complete of roughly $584 million in extramural award funding is suspended and in danger,” UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk mentioned in an replace on the college web site.
The Los Angeles Occasions reported UCLA leaders had been making ready to barter with the federal government over the freeze. The White Home had no speedy response to a request for remark.
Final week, the college agreed to pay over $6 million to settle a lawsuit by some college students and a professor who alleged antisemitism. It was additionally sued earlier this 12 months over a 2024 assault on pro-Palestinian protesters on the top of the U.S. campus protest motion.
The federal government has in current weeks settled its probes with Columbia College, which agreed to pay over $220 million, and Brown College, which mentioned it should pay $50 million. Each establishments accepted sure authorities calls for. Talks to settle with Harvard College are ongoing.
Rights advocates have raised considerations about educational freedom and free speech.
The federal government has additionally tried to deport international pupil protesters however confronted judicial roadblocks. Stanford College’s student-run newspaper sued the Trump administration on Wednesday, saying pupil writers had been censoring themselves and turning down assignments associated to Gaza to keep away from being focused for deportation.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Modifying by Howard Goller)