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The federal agency surprised UCLA by freezing around $339 million in research grants, so faculty, graduate workers and students are asking for more details on what the university, the first public higher education institution to target President Trump, will do.
Could UCLA challenge the federal government in court, negotiate, pay large fines or use emergency reserves to assist researchers? Will UCLA be forced to fire employees, as did Columbia, Harvard University and other elite private universities because more than a third of federal grants and contract funds have been frozen?
As Trump fought to remake the university, the administration accused UCLA of illegally allowing anti-Semitism, using enrollment races, and allowing trans players to compete on sports teams that match their gender identity. Ivy League schools have similarly broken down by the administration in their response to pro-Palestinian camps last year.
Senior administrators outlined responses at virtual city halls with around 3,000 faculty members on Monday, as well as at department-level meetings, including UCLA School of Medicine, which lost hundreds of grants from the National Institutes of Health.
However, they warned that there was no final decision.
“There will be a period of time to resolve the questions the government has for us,” Marcia L. Smith, deputy prime minister of UCLA research management, said at the virtual city hall. Smith said leaders are “preparing” to contact the NIH, the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy, which frozen around 800 grants over the past few days.
Smith said UCLA is “very hopeful” to “find a solution.”
Negotiation terms are unknown
There was no mention of the University of California as likely to pay like Columbia. This agreed to fines of more than $200 million last month as part of a sweeping agreement with Trump to recover suspended grants. UC as a system oversees federal relations at UCLA and nine other campuses.
Speaking about the Times background on Monday, three senior UC leaders reflected a similar message. UCLA will likely enter into negotiations, but it is too early to decide on the terminology. Officials were not permitted to publicly speak about internal deliberations.
Negotiations would also not hinder potential litigation, they said.
“All public agencies across the country look at us very carefully,” UCLA Deputy Prime Minister of Research Research said at City Hall on Monday. He later added: “We’re out of the gate that sets the pace.”
“This isn’t just a UCLA decision, and certainly our prime minister will be closely involved in the progress we make, but it will involve the regent of the University of California,” Wakimoto also said James B. Milicken, the new UC president who started work on Friday.
Wakimoto and UCLA leaders also said they are providing help, including caring for lab animals that other UC campuses may need assistance.
DOJ says UCLA will pay a “heavy price”
Last week’s grant suspension has impacted research in neuroscience, clean energy, cancer and other fields and came after the Department of Justice and our Ati. General Pam Bondy said UCLA will pay a “heavy price” to act with “intentional indifference” to the civil rights of Jews and Israeli students who have advocated anti-Semitism cases since October 7, 2023.
The DOJ gave UCLA until Tuesday to show that they would negotiate those findings. Otherwise, the letter to UC said the Trump administration would sue by September 2nd. The letter was sent before the federal agency began notifying UCLA Prime Minister Julio Frenk that a huge portion of the university’s research enterprises must be stopped.
In his first statement since last week, Frenck has challenged the idea of claiming UCLA’s alleged anti-Semitism.
“The drastic penalty on life-saving research doesn’t address suspicious discrimination… We’re implementing a contingency plan and doing everything we can,” Frenk said without elaborating on the plan.
In a video posted on social media on Monday, Miliken did not directly address the suspension, but he widely mentioned the “challenges” facing the university.
“Higher education faces greater challenges and changes than at any point in my career,” Miliken said. “At the same time, we know that our work is essential to improving our lives, strengthening our economy and providing healthcare that saves life more than ever. Our state, our country and our world’s future relies on thriving, innovative and accessible universities.”
Teachers demand aggressive defense
Hundreds of teachers have their own ideas.
In a petition spread across UCLA and the UC campus, the professor asks UC to challenge the government more head-on. An increasing number has been signed.
“We don’t need to bend over the Trump administration’s demands of illegitimate and bad faith. We will demand that the University of California demonstrate its strength as the world’s largest university system and reject the Trump administration’s malicious demands in the most powerful terms possible.” As of Monday afternoon, the petition had received over 600 signatures, primarily from UCLA professors.
“We demand that UC be what they are: an effort to erode the strength of higher education in America. Efforts to justify the Trump administration’s attacks on the Trump administration’s institutions of higher education must rise right now. We must protect universities to protect democracy.
I also made another proposal. UC will use billions of unlimited donation funds to fill the gaps left by suspended grants. University leaders have not publicly stated whether it is on the table or not.
Carrie Bearden, professor at the Semel Institute at UCLA’s Neuroscience and Human Behavior and Brain Research, is one of the people who signed it. She is the director of the five-year, five-year, $2.36 million NIH Training Grant funding for students doing neurogenetic research.
“It’s an immediate and terrible impact on all trainees. I don’t know what other funds will cover now,” Bareden said.
Vivek Shetty, UCLA professor of oral and maxillofacial surgery and biomedical engineering, also won a 4-year NIH Grant Frozen for $828,154. After being updated for over 11 years, he focuses on training digital health researchers such as digital health researchers who develop apps and wearables to flag irregular heartbeats, pilot diabetes controls every day, and provide medical care remotely.
“This funding is extremely careful to protect us and our families tomorrow,” said Shetty, former UCLA Academic Senate President. “Today, these wonderful hearts starve and wipe out an entire generation of life-saving ideas. But the University of California will acquiesce to Washington’s terms, with a painfully aware of the deep human and scientific costs of this strict order.”
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