This post was updated Nov. 21 at 4:30 p.m.

The UC will continue offering hiring incentives for a more-than-40-year-old postdoctoral fellowship program, despite previously announcing it would end the initiative.

The President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program awards a nearly $75,000 salary to about 30 scholars across the UC for research conducted under faculty sponsorship. While the UC previously said that due to budget constraints it would end the program’s associated hiring incentive – which supports hiring fellows into their first UC ladder rank position – UC President James Milliken announced in a Tuesday email to campus chancellors that the University would continue funding the program.

“After learning more about the history and success of the program and weighing the thoughtful perspectives that have been shared, I have concluded that barring extraordinary financial setbacks, the PPFP faculty hiring incentive program will continue,” Milliken said in the email.

However, Milliken added in the email that some elements of the program – including the number of incentives – could change based on the University’s finances. The UC has faced budgetary woes in the last year, including the state deferring a $130 million payment to the University in June and the Trump administration withholding $584 million in federal research funding to UCLA in July.

[Related: Federal Funding Cuts to UCLA]

Several fellows and alumni of the program gathered outside the Meyer and Renee Luskin Conference Center – where the UC Board of Regents and Milliken are meeting from Tuesday to Thursday – to hold a press conference celebrating the continuation of the incentive program.  

“We applaud President Milliken for listening to our community of supporters and taking an important step in helping to secure the future of this essential program,” said Lenora Renee Knowles, a fellow in the Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies at UCLA, during the press conference. “However, the President’s message also suggested that there may be caps put in place on the total number of incentives that can be used. … Our work is not yet done.”

Jessica Marie Shotwell, a chancellor’s postdoctoral fellow in the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA, said during the press conference that the PPFP hires fellows who help broaden perspectives across the UC. Shotwell – who called herself a Black feminist sociologist – said Milliken’s decision to keep the incentive alive is a testament to the power of those who advocated against “potential capitulation to the Trump administration’s attack on intellectual freedom.”

The postdoctoral fellows program was created in 1984 to encourage women and students from minority backgrounds to pursue academic careers at the UC. A letter signed by UC faculty, administrators, staff and constituents condemned the University’s initial decision to end the hiring incentive and called on administrators to “REAFFIRM the UC’s core values of excellence, integrity, equity, diversity, and inclusion.”

The UC Office of the President announced in late October that it would close its Department of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, replacing it with the Office of Culture and Inclusive Excellence. While the EDI department website previously said its purpose was to dismantle “all forms of systemic discrimination” and to build “an enduring anti-racist organization,” the new OCIE homepage makes no references to race or racism.

[Related: UC eliminates EDI department, creates Office of Culture and Inclusive Excellence]

President Donald Trump has attacked diversity-related initiatives since entering office – and threatened to withhold federal funding from universities that do not comply. The United States Department of Justice demanded in its proposed $1 billion settlement for UCLA to regain its federal funding that the university eliminate “any form of financial bonuses or benefits for race-, sex- or ethnicity-based hiring” and “discontinue race- and ethnicity-based scholarships.”

[Related: Trump administration’s UCLA demands target international students, DEI initiatives]

Leisy J. Abrego, a professor in Chicana/o and Central American Studies at UCLA who was selected to be a fellow at UC Irvine in 2008, said the fellowship community found out the hiring incentive would be cut “without any prior notice” – leading people to start organizing, signing petitions and sending emails.

Abrego called the fellowship a “transformative moment” in her life – adding that the experience allowed her to work alongside a thoughtful mentor and be a part of a network of scholars who continue to support each other.

“I came into this position with support that I wouldn’t have had otherwise, and it has allowed me to thrive, to become an award-winning scholar, teacher, and to be present for my students and to do the work that I think is meaningful,” she said. 

Robert Fofrich, a UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow at the UCLA Institute of the Environment & Sustainability, said during the press conference that the program is highly competitive – demonstrating the hard work that fellows undergo to be admitted to the program. He added that he hopes the program will be able to give back to the fellows who are producing valuable academic work.

“It’s a bit ironic that just a year ago, we were here inside of this building celebrating the 40th anniversary of this great fellowship that has led to numerous professors here at the UC system,” Fofrich said. “I hope that when going forward, President Milliken continues advocating on behalf of this program and keeps standing up for academic freedom and academic excellence.”