Elite university system shudders at Trump settlement’s price tag

The Trump administration proposed a settlement agreement to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) that comes with a major price tag that the university fears would “completely devastate” it.

The Trump administration recently revoked $584 million in federal funds from UCLA, claiming the university failed to address antisemitism on campus and continues to engage in racial discrimination in its admissions process. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has now reportedly proposed a $1 billion settlement agreement.

The University of California (UC) system president James Milliken said the university is open to “good faith dialogue” with the administration to reach an agreement but that the DOJ’s proposal is infeasible.

“As a public university, we are stewards of taxpayer resources and a payment of this scale would completely devastate our country’s greatest public university system as well as inflict great harm on our students and all Californians,” Milliken wrote in an announcement. “Americans across this great nation rely on the vital work of UCLA and the UC system for technologies and medical therapies that save lives, grow the U.S. economy, and protect our national security.”

The UC system and the DOJ did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

UCLA was a hotspot for anti-Israel protests following the start of the Israel-Hamas War in 2023, during which administrators allegedly failed to shut down a “Jew Exclusion Zone” that required students to publicly denounce Israel to access parts of campus. Administrators were also caught privately cheering the pro-Palestinian demonstrators on.

The university recently settled a lawsuit with students and a professor over the incident, paying more than $6 million.

Following the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling banning the use of affirmative action policies, UCLA publicized plans that racially gerrymander the student body despite the order. The university boasted its method of increasing personalized outreach to nonwhite students, hosting events for “underrepresented groups” and viewing applications in a “holistic” fashion instead of in separate segments.

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