UCLA Says Freeze Harms Life-Saving Research With No Connection to Stated Reason
Donald Trump’s administration has blocked $200 million in research funding to UCLA, accusing the university of failing to respond adequately to antisemitism tied to recent pro-Palestinian protests on campus.
Chancellor Frenk announced, via a posted message, “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.”
The funding suspension, announced this week, is part of a broader effort by the administration to crack down on universities where officials claim antisemitic conduct has emerged during pro-Palestinian demonstrations. President Donald Trump and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said earlier that UCLA would face federal consequences for its handling of incidents involving Jewish and Israeli students.
UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk responded to the decision in a message to the campus community, strongly criticizing the move and defending the university’s response to campus protests. Frenk confirmed that the federal notice cited antisemitism as the basis for withholding funds, which support a wide range of research across disciplines.
Frenk said, “In its notice to us, the federal government claims antisemitism and bias as the reasons. This far-reaching penalty of defunding life-saving research does nothing to address any alleged discrimination,” in the posted message.
Faculty for Justice in Palestine at UCLA also issued a statement which said, in part, “We reject this cynical weaponization of antisemitism, and the misinformation campaign spinning calls for Palestinian freedom as antisemitic. “We must name this for what it is: a thinly-veiled attempt to punish supporters of Palestinian freedom, and to advance the long-standing conservative goal of dismantling higher education.”
The funding freeze follows mounting political pressure from some Republican members of Congress, who have pointed to recent student-led demonstrations at universities across the country as evidence of rising antisemitism. Free speech and civil liberties advocates, however, argue that the administration is conflating criticism of Israeli government policy with hate speech, and warn that federal interventions could chill protected political expression.
