Trump administration cuts UCLA research funding over antisemitism claims

The Trump administration is cutting UCLA’s federal research funding, and “claims antisemitism and bias” as the reasons, the university’s chancellor announced.

“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,” Chancellor Julio Frenk said in a statement to the Bruin community on Thursday. “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.”

The university stands to lose nearly $200 million in federal funding, prompting the cancellation of hundreds of NSF grants that had already been approved, the Los Angeles Times reported. About half of the funds were already distributed, and researchers were expecting the other half to come at a later time, according to the report.

“That is why the news we received is so deeply disappointing,” Frenk said. “This far-reaching penalty of defunding life-saving research does nothing to address any alleged discrimination.”

The U.S. Department of Justice believes UCLA failed to address antisemitic incidents on its campus in the wake of the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel or the pro-Palestinian protests that took place on campus about six months later.

“We share the goal of eradicating antisemitism across society. Antisemitism has no place on our campus, nor does any form of discrimination,” Frenk said in his letter. “Earlier this year, we took concrete action by creating a new Office of Campus and Community Safety, instituting new policies to manage protests on campus, and taking decisive action for conduct that violates our policies.”

Frenk also pointed to the new Initiative to Combat Antisemitism that reports directly to him.

Earlier this week, UCLA reached a $6 million settlement to end an antisemitism lawsuit.

The lawsuit was brought by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty last year after the encampments cropped up at the university that spring and a video went viral of a Jewish student being blocked from entering a certain part of campus.