UCLA chancellor ready to stand firm against Trump demands, unless they're 'valid'

LOS ANGELES — UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk says the university will address "valid" concerns of the Trump administration and be "fully compliant" with the law, but will defend the campus against federal civil rights investigations and funding suspensions.

In a wide-ranging online appearance Thursday evening hosted by a Los Angeles-based Jewish civic group, Frenk said the University of California was still considering suing the Trump administration over its August demand that UCLA pay a $1.2 billion fine and make sweeping changes in its diversity programs, admissions practices and policies governing gender identity on campus and international students.

But, for now, he said, UC officials are negotiating with the Department of Justice and will staunchly uphold core academic freedoms to "assure that there's no government interference in who we hire, who we admit, and what we teach or research."

Making his first extensive public remarks on a nearly two-month saga that has shaken the UC system over possible federal actions and funding clawbacks, Frenk said he was not "directly" involved in government talks and had no "visibility" into how long the process would take.

But he said he was taking firm actions against antisemitism allegations at UCLA.

"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," Frenk said.

Jews United for Democracy and Justice hosted the event, titled, "Can America's universities survive the current assault?" The group formed during President Trump's first term in response to travel bans that initially targeted Muslim-majority nations after the president promised to ban all immigration of Muslims to the U.S.

On its website, the organization, whose leadership includes former Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky and former Congressman Mel Levine, says it responds to "rising threats to religious tolerance, equal rights, a free and fair press, human dignity, and long-held norms of decency and civil society."

Larry Mantle, the host of AirTalk on LAist, interviewed Frenk, focusing much of the conversation on reporting from The Times that revealed details of a 28-page settlement proposal the Trump administration sent to UCLA last month.

The Trump administration rescinded $584 million in UCLA research grants in late July, citing allegations of campus antisemitism, use of race in admissions and the school's recognition of transgender identities. To restore the funding, the government has demanded changes to admissions, protest rules and gender-affirming healthcare for minors. It also wants to ban the university from admitting "anti-western" international students, and is demanding the disclosure of internal campus records.

The vast majority of the funding has been temporarily restored by court order as part of a lawsuit filed by UC faculty. The suit is proceeding in court while a federal judge considers the merits of the case.

After Frenk's Thursday appearance, a UCLA spokesperson clarified to The Times that the chancellor's mention of litigation as part of the university's strategy was in reference to faculty-led lawsuits.

During the talk, Frenk outlined several areas where UCLA was willing to agree with the Trump administration, while declining to take a position on others.

Actions against antisemitism

Frenk said there were "failures" during the 2024 pro-Palestinian protests in responding to complaints by Jewish community members of discrimination — including that they were blocked by protesters from a central campus green for being Jewish. Others, including Jewish members of a pro-Palestinian encampment, have disagreed, saying the encampment restricted some pro-Israel individuals from entry as a de-escalation measure. The encampment faced violent attack April 30 and May 1, 2024, from a vigilante mob.

Frenk, who took the helm at UCLA in January, said he "heard loud and clear" that the "No. 1 request" on campus was to address the climate for Jewish students, an area where he believed the campus had made significant progress.

He also said the university was committed to protecting the rights of Muslim students and all groups from discrimination.

Asked if UCLA would adopt a controversial definition of antisemitism by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, a quasi-governmental international body, Frenk declined to support or oppose the idea. Although it's not a part of federal demands to UCLA, some Jewish faculty have asked the campus to adopt the definition. It says that "denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, such as by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor," is an example of antisemitism.

Harvard and Columbia, which have been similarly under antisemitism investigations this year, now use the definition.

Frenk, who was born in Mexico after his grandparents fled rising antisemitism in 1930s Germany, said criticism of "Israel or the Jewish people" as a whole was antisemitic. But he said criticizing the government of Israel or its policies is not.

The Trump administration's suspension of grants, he said, could make antisemitism "worse."

"Now we hear people saying, 'It's because Jewish faculty are complaining so much now I have my grant canceled," Frenk said.

He added, "We have a lot of researchers who are Jewish themselves" and they, too, are losing out in the government's actions to address alleged discrimination.

Allegations of using ace in admissions

In addition to federal antisemitism allegations, Frenk said the government has charged UCLA with illegally using race in admissions and discriminating against women by recognizing transgender women in sports and other areas.

Frenk said "those are valid concerns, and we need to address them," adding that UCLA follows state and federal laws.

He said UCLA has been "compliant" with decades-old state law that bans use of race in admissions. Regarding transgender athletes, "that's not an issue we're dealing with on this particular campus" because UCLA is part of the National Collegiate Athletics Assn., which bans transgender women from sports teams.

As for the government's demand that UCLA end all gender-affirming care for minors, the chancellor said, "We are going to have to follow whatever rules the federal government proposes." UCLA, he said, does not offer gender-affirming surgery for transgender minors but does offer other treatments, such as hormonal prescriptions or puberty blockers. He said the campus would "have to see" how federal policy on the matter developed.

A UCLA representative later said the university stopped offering gender-affirming surgeries in June 2024. The services offered before that, the person said, were chest procedures. They did not indicate why the medical care stopped.

The Trump administration has also proposed that UCLA screen international applicants to prevent "anti-American" and "anti-Western" people from coming to campus. It has not defined what the terms mean, although in separate statements and actions Trump has made clear that pro-Palestinian student activists are, in his view, anti-American.

Frenk declined to say whether UCLA would agree to such terms.

"All of these may be issues that become non-issues. I don't want to speculate," he said, saying the government's demands were not an "outcome" but " hypothetical" proposals.

In a statement, UC spokesperson Rachel Zaentz said "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."