UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk warned university officials on Thursday not to let the Trump administration dictate how the university hires faculty, admits students, teaches or conducts research — as UC officials negotiate with the federal government about restoring more than $580 million in funding slashed earlier this year over allegations of antisemitism on campus.
Frenk, speaking to talk show host Larry Mantle at a virtual event hosted by Jews United for Democracy and Justice, argued for a “series of principles that we absolutely need to safeguard” in the talks. The Trump administration has demanded $1 billion and several campus reforms in order to restore funding.
It was one of the first times that Frenk, who took over as chancellor in January, has publicly addressed the financial dilemma confronting the university. A federal judge earlier this week ordered the administration to temporarily restore the funding in a lawsuit filed by several UC researchers while the case winds through the courts.
Frenk, who said he is not directly participating in the negotiations, maintained the “principles are very clear” in terms of “red lines we cannot cross,” including “no government interference with decisions on who we hire — typically our faculty — who we admit as students, and what we teach and do research on.”
“That’s the core of academic freedom,” he said, adding that the principles are consistent with the UC’s policies.
UC spokesperson Rachel Zaentz said in a statement that “our focus remains protecting students’ access to a UC education and promoting the academic freedom, excellence, and innovation that is at the core of the University’s mission.”
According to a draft of the Trump administration’s settlement proposal viewed by POLITICO, UCLA would have to eliminate scholarships based on race and ethnicity along with faculty programs that incentivize hiring based on race, gender or ethnicity. The administration also wants the campus to stop using proxies for race in admissions.
Frenk did not elaborate on whether he would push back on what the administration is seeking, and he declined to comment when Mantle asked about a demand that UCLA screen international applicants for whether they have “anti-Western” or “anti-American views.”
“There’s a parallel process going on,” Frenk said, referring to the ongoing negotiations. “All of these may be issues that become non-issues. So, I don’t want to speculate.”
UC officials have revealed little about the status of the negotiations with the administration, though regents have met several times privately to discuss the matter.
Newly-installed UC President James Milliken, speaking at his first regents meeting last week, said that the UCLA funding cuts “cast a dark shadow over our entire future, calling into question the viability of our institutions, and threatening the future of our state and our nation.”
Frenk rejected the Trump administration’s premise for cutting the grants. While conceding that UCLA needs to do better in combatting antisemitism, he contended that “cutting funding for life-saving and life-transforming research doesn’t address the problem of antisemitism.”
“We believe in talking and trying to make our case, where we try to demonstrate that we are serious about fighting antisemitism, that suspending research is not a way to deal with that problem,” Frenk said.
