Proposed UCLA settlement from federal government seeks $1 billion, policy changes

A researcher works in a UCLA lab. The federal government is seeking $1 billion from UCLA to restore the university’s frozen research funding. (Daily Bruin file photo)

By Josephine Murphy
Aug. 8, 2025 12:42 p.m.
This post was updated Aug. 24 at 7:36 p.m.
The federal government is seeking $1 billion from UCLA to restore the university’s research funding.
The Trump administration suspended $584 million in grants to UCLA last week from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health and U.S. Department of Energy. Letters from the agencies cited alleged antisemitism in research environments, illegal affirmative action practices and “allowing men to participate in women’s sports” as reasoning for the freeze.
If UCLA agrees, the proposed settlement would include the largest amount of money given by a university to the Trump administration thus far.
A drafted proposal sent Friday from the administration to the university would require UCLA to pay $1 billion in installments – as well as a $172 million claims fund, which would be distributed to those the administration claims have been impacted by violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 – according to CNN.
The U.S. Department of Justice opened an investigation into UCLA’s employment practices in June, citing that the university may be in violation of Title VII – which prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of sex, gender, religion or national origin.
[Related: Department of Justice opens investigation for alleged UC employment discrimination]
UC President James Milliken said in a Friday statement that the UC is “reviewing” the proposal. He added that the UC has offered to “engage in good faith dialogue” with the U.S. Department of Justice – but that this proposal would “completely devastate our country’s greatest public university system.”
“As a public university, we are stewards of taxpayer resources,” he said in the statement. “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.”
[Related: UC ‘to engage’ in talks with federal administration amid UCLA $584 million loss]
Chancellor Julio Frenk said in a Friday email that the university is “actively” considering its options and will continue to be in communication with the UCLA community as new developments arise.
“I want to reiterate from my first message on this matter our commitment to do everything we can to protect the interests of faculty, students and staff — and to defend our values and principles,” he said in the email.
The settlement would also require UCLA to hire a resolution monitor and a new senior administrator to oversee the school and its compliance with anti-discrimination laws, according to CNN. The university will have to provide the resolution monitor with UCLA’s admission data, and discontinue race- and ethnicity-based scholarships.
It would also require a revision of policies surrounding protests – including a prohibition on overnight demonstrations – according to CNN.
The proposal would also mandate the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and David Geffen School of Medicine to stop providing gender-affirming care, mandate single-sex housing for female students and “ensure athletic recognition for female athletes in women’s sports,” according to CNN.
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles recently announced it would close its gender-affirming care center for people under 19, and Kaiser Permanente, another one of LA’s leading hospitals, said it would halt gender-affirming surgeries for people under 19 – both in response to federal scrutiny.
Two universities – Columbia University and Brown University – have settled with the Trump administration for $221 million and $50 million, respectively. Harvard University has “signaled a willingness” to settling for up to $500 million, according to The New York Times.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said at a Thursday event that he will “do everything in (his) power” to encourage and ensure the UC does not become “another institution that takes a shortcut and takes the easy wrong versus the hard right,” according to the LA Times.
“We’re not Brown, we’re not Columbia, and I’m not going to be governor if we act like that,” Newsom said. “I will fight like hell to make sure that doesn’t happen.”




