SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A legal action has been launched against the University of California by its faculty, staff, student bodies, and labor unions. The lawsuit claims the Trump administration is using civil rights legislation to undermine academic freedom and free speech at the institution.
Weeks before the lawsuit, the Trump administration imposed a hefty $1.2 billion fine on the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and halted its research funding. This was due to accusations of the university tolerating antisemitism and other civil rights breaches. UCLA became the first public university to face such extensive financial penalties. Similar funding suspensions have also been applied to elite private schools like Harvard, Brown, and Columbia for related allegations.
The lawsuit states that the Trump administration’s settlement offer for UCLA includes demands such as granting access to faculty, student, and staff information, disclosing admissions and hiring records, abolishing diversity grants, prohibiting overnight protests on campus, and assisting with immigration law enforcement.
The Department of Justice didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did the office of the UC system’s president.
A University of California system representative, Stett Holbrook, mentioned that although the university is not a participant in the lawsuit, it is actively engaging in various legal and advocacy initiatives to preserve funding.
“Cuts to federal research support endanger groundbreaking biomedical investigations, weaken U.S. economic standing, and risk the health of Americans reliant on the university’s advanced medical research and innovation,” Holbrook stated.
The lawsuit was organized by a coalition, led by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) union and legally represented by Democracy Forward, a group that has previously filed suits against the Trump administration over stalled federal funding.
“The blunt cudgel the Trump administration has repeatedly employed in this attack on the independence of institutions of higher education has been the abrupt, unilateral, and unlawful termination of federal research funding on which those institutions and the public interest rely,” the lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco said.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has launched dozens of federal investigations also targeting K-12 school districts.
University of California President James Milliken said on Monday that the federal government has also launched investigations and other actions against all of the UC’s 10 campuses, but he offered no details in a statement.
“This represents one of the gravest threats to the University of California in our 157-year history,” he said, adding that the university system receives more than $17 billion each year in federal support, including nearly $10 billion in Medicare and Medicaid funding, and funding that goes toward research and student financial aid.
The Trump administration has used its control of federal funding to push for reforms at elite colleges that the president decries as overrun by liberalism and antisemitism. The administration also has launched investigations into diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, saying they discriminate against white and Asian American students.
This summer, Columbia University agreed to pay $200 million as part of a settlement to resolve investigations into the government’s allegations that the school violated federal antidiscrimination laws. The agreement also restored more than $400 million in research grants.
The Trump administration is using its deal with Columbia as a template for other universities, with financial penalties that are now seen as an expectation.
