The Trump administration has cut UCLA’s federal research funds and “subject anti-Semitism and prejudice” as a reason, the university’s prime minister announced.
“UCLA has received notification that the federal government has suspended certain research funding to UCLA through control of the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and other agencies,” Prime Minister Julio Frenk said in a statement to the Bruin Community on Thursday. “This is not just a loss for researchers who rely on critical grants. It is a loss for jobs, health and future Americans who rely on the groundbreaking work we do.”
The university has lost nearly $200 million in federal funds and is urging it to cancel hundreds of already approved NSF grants, the Los Angeles Times reported. About half of the funds had already been distributed, and researchers expected the other half to arrive later, according to the report.
“That’s why the news we received is so disappointing,” Frenk said. “This widespread penalty in life-saving research rebates does nothing to address suspicious discrimination.”
The U.S. Department of Justice believes UCLA has failed to address anti-Semitism cases on campus in the wake of Hamas attacks on Israel or a pro-Palestinian protest on campus about six months later.
“We share the goal of eradicating anti-Semitism across society. Anti-Semitism does not exist on our campus and is not a form of discrimination,” Frenck said in his letter. “At the beginning of the year, we took concrete action by creating a new office for campus and community safety, enacting new policies to manage protests on campus, and taking decisive action against conduct that violates the policy.”
Frenk also pointed to a new initiative to combat anti-Semitism, which he reports directly to him.
Earlier this week, UCLA reached a $6 million settlement to end its anti-Semitism lawsuit.
The lawsuit came last year by the Beckett Fund for Religious Freedom, causing a video of Jewish students whose camps appeared in the spring, blocking the video from entering certain parts of campus.
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