(Photo Anna Moneymaker)
The Trump administration has notified the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) that it is freezing $339.2 million in federal funds from the institution following civil rights violations, a senior administration official told the Daily Caller.
The Department of Energy (DOE), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), notified the institution this week that federal funds to the university have been frozen after each department identified various civil rights violations, according to a series of letters obtained by the Caller. The DOE is freezing $18.2 million in funds, HHS and NIH are freezing $240 million in funds and NSF is freezing $81 million in funds, an administration official told the Caller.
“DOE understands that the University of California – Los Angeles continues to engage in race discrimination including in its admissions process, and in other areas of student life, as well as failing to promote a research environment free of antisemitism and bias,” a DOE letter says of its decision to freeze funds.
The DOE goes on to write that the administration has identified that the university “engages in racism, in the form of illegal affirmative action,” “fails to promote a research environment free of antisemitism and bias,” and “discriminates against and endangers women by allowing men in women’s sports and private women–only spaces.”
People walk on the UCLA campus on July 30, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. The University of California, Los Angeles has reached a $6 million settlement with Jewish students and a professor in a lawsuit alleging discrimination over the 2024 pro-Palestinian campus protests. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
The DOE also writes that UCLA has a policy that permits males to compete in women’s sports and use women–only facilities. This practice, the letter explains “has created an unsafe environment for women that further threatens the integrity of the research environment on its campuses.”
HHS and NIH’s letter includes similar wording and explanations for freezing funds to the university.
“The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) has undertaken a review of its award portfolio,” the agency’s letter to UCLA states. “The agency has determined that suspension of certain awards is necessary because they are not in alignment with current NSF priorities and/or programmatic goals.”
Politico first reported that the administration was planning to freeze funds to UCLA, but did not report the amount paused.
The school notified its community of the freeze on Thursday, Politico reported.
“This is not only a loss to the researchers who rely on critical grants,”university Chancellor Julio Frenk wrote. “It is a loss for Americans across the nation whose work, health, and future depend on the groundbreaking work we do.”
Early in the administration, the Trump administration froze more than $2 billion in federal funding to various universities as they investigate them for civil rights violations.
Since, several universities have settled with the administration. Brown University agreed to dole out $50 million state workforce development organizations and to comply with certain requirements, a senior administration official told the Caller. The Trump Administration also secured a $200 million settlement with Columbia University to address what it said were severe violations of federal civil rights laws, according to memo obtained by the Caller.
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The university will pay $50 million over ten years to state workforce development organizations that comply with anti-discrimination laws, a senior WH official shares with @DailyCaller.
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— Reagan Reese (@reaganreese_) July 30, 2025
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— Reagan Reese (@reaganreese_) July 1, 2025
After the Trump administration paused $175 million in federal funding to the University of Pennsylvania in March, the school and the administration reached an agreement which forced the institution to strip transgender swimmer Lia Thomas of previous records and titles while competing in women’s sports.
