The federal government is freezing over $300 million in research funds for the University of California, Los Angeles, over claims of antisemitism and bias at the institution, according to its chancellor and Trump administration documents.
In a statement late Thursday, the chancellor, Julio Frenk, said that the federal government was cutting “hundreds of grants” to the university.
Letters this week to U.C.L.A. from the Energy Department, National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health accuse the university of adhering to “illegal affirmative action” policies, failing to do enough to combat antisemitism on campus and discriminating against women by allowing the participation of transgender athletes.
The Trump administration paused the research funding as part of an investigation by the government’s antisemitism task force, two administration officials said. The freeze included about $240 million in research grants from the Health and Human Services Department and the N.I.H., $81 million from the N.S.F. and $18.2 million from the Energy Department, a White House spokeswoman said.
The move makes U.C.L.A. the latest university to be targeted by Trump administration officials. It comes amid a broader pushback by the administration against what it sees as “woke” ideologies.
The N.S.F. said in a statement that it was “suspending awards to U.C.L.A. because they are not in alignment with current N.S.F. priorities and/or programmatic goals.” The N.I.H. did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In recent weeks, Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, Brown and others have had federal funding reduced or threatened based on broad accusations from the Trump administration that range from antisemitism to improper support for diversity, equity and inclusion programs. In some cases, the government has used the threat of funding cuts to extract concessions and hundreds of millions of dollars from universities.
Last year, U.C.L.A. was the site of one of the nation’s biggest protests against the Israeli military offensive in Gaza. The demonstrations prompted claims from across the political spectrum that the university didn’t do enough to protect Jewish students or pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
On Tuesday, the university agreed to pay more than $6 million to settle a lawsuit from Jewish students and a professor who said that the university had allowed a hostile protest on campus. After the settlement was announced, the Department of Justice separately said that it had found the university violated civil rights laws by failing to respond to students’ complaints of antisemitism.
Although the Trump administration intensified its attacks on U.C.L.A. this week, the school had been a target of the government’s scrutiny for more than a year. In May 2024, Dr. Frenk’s predecessor, Gene D. Block, testified before a congressional committee examining campus antisemitism. And in February, a Trump administration task force on antisemitism identified U.C.L.A. as one of 10 schools it intended to visit as it investigated whether “remedial action is warranted.”
In recent weeks, U.C.L.A. would not say whether any of the task force’s investigators had been to the campus.
Dr. Frenk said in his statement on Thursday that U.C.L.A. had taken “concrete action” to address antisemitism and discrimination, including creating a new office of campus safety.
“This far-reaching penalty of defunding lifesaving research does nothing to address any alleged discrimination,” he wrote.
He called the cuts a “loss for Americans across the nation” whose work and health rely on the university’s research.
The funding cut is an early test for Dr. Frenk, who became chancellor in January, as well as James B. Milliken, who took over as the University of California system’s leader on Friday.
State and education leaders have been deeply concerned about the possibility that the Trump administration would target the university system as a whole, but especially the campuses in Los Angeles and Berkeley.
Both schools were on the antisemitism task force’s list for potential visits. But the Department of Education has also said it was investigating accusations of antisemitism at several other U.C. campuses.
Alan Blinder contributed reporting.
Jonathan Wolfe is a Times reporter based in London, covering breaking news.
Michael C. Bender is a Times correspondent in Washington.
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