DOJ announces UCLA violated civil rights of Jewish students hours after University settles suit for $6.45M
The University of California has agreed to pay $6.45 million to settle a lawsuit stemming from alleged anti-Semitic incidents on campus.
Hours later, the Department of Justice announced findings of civil rights violations by the university.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday that the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) violated federal civil rights laws by failing to protect Jewish and Israeli students from antisemitic harassment on campus.
The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division found that UCLA acted with “deliberate indifference” in response to ongoing discrimination and threats targeting Jewish students following Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel.
The agency cited UCLA for violating both Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The announcement came just hours after UCLA agreed to a $6.45 million settlement in a separate civil lawsuit filed by three Jewish students and a medical professor. The plaintiffs claimed the university enabled antisemitism by allowing an unauthorized “Jew Exclusion Zone” during a pro-Palestinian encampment last spring.
Protesters allegedly barred Jewish students and faculty from entering certain campus areas.
The DOJ’s findings were based in part on the same documentation cited in the lawsuit, including 11 student complaints filed between April 25 and May 1, 2024. According to federal officials, UCLA failed to take timely or meaningful action to address the reported harassment.
The Los Angeles Times reports UCLA will pay $50,000 to each plaintiff and allocate more than $2.3 million to eight Jewish community organizations, including Hillel and the Anti-Defamation League. An additional $320,000 will fund an on-campus antisemitism initiative. The remainder will cover legal fees.
The agreement, pending judicial approval, also prohibits UCLA from knowingly allowing future discrimination against Jewish students.
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The settlement is believed to be the largest to date by a private plaintiff in a wave of campus antisemitism lawsuits filed under the Trump administration. DOJ officials indicated that investigations are ongoing across other University of California campuses.
UCLA did not admit wrongdoing in the agreement, but UC Regents Chair Janet Reilly acknowledged the university’s failings and promised reforms.