UCLA’s chancellor encouraged school officials to resist the Trump administration in the upcoming negotiations to restore over half a billion dollars in federal funding.
Julio Frenk, the university’s chancellor, made the comments on “America at a Crossroads,” a virtual interview held on Zoom on Thursday evening, “Can America’s Universities Survive the Current Assault? A Conversation with UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk.”
During the conversation, Frenk urged university officials not to acquiesce to the demands of the Trump administration in negotiations surrounding the $580 million in federal funding that the presidential administration stopped earlier this year in efforts to combat antisemitism on UCLA’s campus, during the school’s anti-Israel protests, Politico reported. The administration claimed that the college did not adequately protect Jewish students and faculty during the demonstrations, which turned violent in multiple instances.
U.S. District Judge Rita F. Lin ruled on Monday that the Trump administration’s decision to stop federal funding to UCLA likely violated the Administrative Procedure Act, the Washington Examiner previously reported. She ordered the Trump administration to restore funding while the case is argued in the courts.
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Regarding the negotiations, Frenk stressed that there were “red lines we cannot cross” in the arbitration process, specifically mentioning a “series of principles that we absolutely need to safeguard.” He also emphasized that university negotiators should not concede to the Trump administration on hiring protocols, student admission processes, and the subjects and areas of what the university teaches or researches, according to Politico.
He said the “principles are very clear” when it comes to such things, highlighting that there was to be “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,” Frenk said.
Frenk became UCLA chancellor on January 1, 2025, after the campus protests had mostly stopped.
Politico cited a draft copy of the Trump administration’s settlement proposal with UCLA, which called for a major overhaul at the school regarding race-based admissions, hiring, and scholarship opportunities. The Trump administration suggested that the university eliminate all race-based considerations in all academic, professional, and staff decision-making processes.
Rachel Zaenta, senior director of strategic and critical communications at the University of California, Office of the President, claimed UCLA’s priority included “promoting academic freedom,” among other things.
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Zaenta told Politico 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.”
Meanwhile, Frenk has rejected these proposals and also regularly denied that the school did not adequately protect Jewish staff and students during the anti-Israel protests on campus. He assured that UCLA took accusations and threats of antisemitism seriously.
“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,” said Frenk.
