UC faculty sue Trump administration over funding cuts

This story was originally published by EdSource. Sign up for their daily newsletter.

A coalition of University of California and national unions and faculty groups is suing the Trump administration, arguing that the administration’s suspension of federal research funds and its policy demands of UC are unconstitutional.

The federal lawsuit was filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, by the American Association of University Professors, the American Federation of Teachers and more than a dozen UC faculty associations and unions.

The Trump administration has already frozen more than $500 million in grants to UCLA and threatened further cuts. The federal government has charged UCLA with not responding adequately to antisemitism on campus and offered a settlement that would cost UCLA $1.2 billion and require concessions and changes in admissions, hiring, medical care and other areas.

“This is extortion, plain and simple. Capitulation would come at a dire cost to workers and communities across the state now and for decades to come as life-saving health care is delayed, cutting-edge research is shuttered, and the promise of a world-class education becomes less and less attainable for our students,” said Dan Russell, president and chief negotiator of the University Professional and Technical Employees, which represents employees in research labs and medical facilities across UC’s 10 campuses.

The U.S. Department of Justice did not immediately return a request for comment.

In a statement on Monday, UC President James B. Milliken called the Trump administration’s demands of UC “one of the gravest threats” to the university in its history and said the system would “evaluate every option to resolve this conflict.”