Trump administration says UCLA violated civil rights law with ‘indifferent’ response to antisemitism complaints
Top Takeaways
- UCLA has until Aug. 5 to start working toward a “voluntary resolution agreement” or face possibly large repercussions.
- UCLA’s settlement with students includes $50,000 each to the plaintiffs and $2.3 million to Jewish-focused nonprofit organizations, including Hillel at UCLA and the Anti-Defamation League.
- U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi called what she alleged was UCLA’s lack of protection for Jewish students a “disgusting breach of civil rights.”
The U.S. Department of Justice said Tuesday that UCLA violated civil rights law after a pro-Palestinian encampment was erected last year and the campus allowed what the department called a hostile environment for Jewish students.
On the same day, the University of California announced it would pay close to $6.5 million to settle a lawsuit brought last year by three Jewish UCLA students and a professor, who said the encampment blocked Jewish students from getting to their classes and a library.
Hours after that settlement was announced, the Department of Justice issued UCLA a “notice of violation,” which states that the campus “was deliberately indifferent to the hostile environment for Jewish and Israeli students created by the protest encampment” and inadequate in responding to complaints from those students. The federal declaration did not mention the monetary settlement, and it was not clear whether the two separate actions were purposefully timed to occur on the same day.
The Department of Justice notice says UCLA has until Aug. 5 to contact the department and begin working toward a “voluntary resolution agreement.” The DOJ added that it is prepared to file a complaint in federal district court by Sept. 2 if it doesn’t believe a resolution can be reached.
“Our investigation into the University of California system has found concerning evidence of systemic anti-Semitism at UCLA that demands severe accountability from the institution,” U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement. “This disgusting breach of civil rights against students will not stand: DOJ will force UCLA to pay a heavy price for putting Jewish Americans at risk and continue our ongoing investigations into other campuses in the UC system.”
In the notice to UCLA, the DOJ did not detail possible disciplinary measures or fines that UCLA might face. But at other campuses nationwide, the threats and repercussions have been large. Facing similar allegations about antisemitism during protests, Columbia University in New York recently agreed to pay a $200 million settlement over three years in response to Trump administration threats of much deeper cuts to its research grants.
The DOJ specifically said UCLA violated the U.S. Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause as well as Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination by recipients of federal funds based on race or national origin.
The findings stem from an investigation launched May 9 into the University of California system’s “response to incidents of antisemitic discrimination, harassment, abuse, and retaliation against students,” the DOJ said in its notice.
In a statement Wednesday, a UC spokesperson said UCLA “has addressed and will continue to address the issues raised in yesterday’s Department of Justice notice, as evidenced by the UCLA settlement.”
“We have cooperated fully with the Department of Justice’s investigation and are reviewing its findings closely,” the spokesperson added.
UCLA was one of several UC campuses and many others nationwide during the spring 2024 term where protesters built pro-Palestinian encampments and demanded their universities cut financial ties with Israel. In filing a lawsuit last year, three UCLA students and one professor called the campus a “hotbed of antisemitism.” In the lawsuit, they also labeled the encampment there a “Jew Exclusion Zone” that restricted their movement and blocked them from accessing facilities, including a campus library.
As part of the settlement reached with those students, the university will pay a total of $6.45 million, including $50,000 to each plaintiff and $3.6 million to cover the plaintiffs’ legal fees. An additional $2.33 million will be charitable contributions to a range of Jewish-focused nonprofit organizations, including Hillel at UCLA, the Anti-Defamation League and Chabad of UCLA. The final $320,000 will go toward a UCLA initiative announced earlier this year to combat antisemitism.
“We are pleased with the terms of today’s settlement. The injunction and other terms UCLA has agreed to demonstrate real progress in the fight against antisemitism,” the plaintiffs and defendants said in a joint statement provided by UC on Tuesday.
UCLA also agreed as part of the settlement that it is “prohibited from knowingly allowing or facilitating the exclusion of Jewish students, faculty, and/or staff from ordinarily available portions of UCLA’s programs, activities, and/or campus areas.”
One of the student plaintiffs, Joshua Ghayoum, a sophomore at the time, reported being stopped at an encampment checkpoint.
“While attempting to get to Powell Library to study for his midterms, Ghayoum encountered a massive barricade flanked by security. A security guard informed Ghayoum that he could not proceed past the barricade. Ghayoum walked to the other end of the barricade, only to be confronted by a second security guard who gave the same instruction,” the original lawsuit states. He ultimately “abandoned his plans to study,” according to the lawsuit.
The university was also criticized at the time for not doing more to protect the pro-Palestinian protesters and students. Those activists protested Israel’s bombardment of Gaza and the large number of fatalities; the Israeli action was undertaken after the Hamas group invaded Israel in October 2023 and killed many civilians there.
On the night of April 30, counterprotesters attacked the encampment, throwing objects, firing projectiles and injuring some of the protesters. UCLA’s police chief at the time, John Thomas, was criticized for the university’s response to the violence. He was reassigned and eventually resigned from the campus.
On Monday, the Los Angeles Times reported that a man charged with a hate crime for his role in the attack on the encampment, Malachi Marlan-Librett, entered a diversionary program and will avoid jail time if he completes the program. That was the only felony case filed in connection to the attacks, according to the Times.
Janet Reilly, the chair of UC’s board of regents, said in a statement Tuesday following the settlement that “antisemitism, harassment, and other forms of intimidation are antithetical” to UC’s values.
“We have been clear about where we have fallen short, and we are committed to doing better moving forward,” Reilly said. “Today’s settlement reflects a critically important goal that we share with the plaintiffs: to foster a safe, secure and inclusive environment for all members of our community and ensure that there is no room for antisemitism anywhere on campus.”
