UCLA raked in billions from feds while pushing DEI, anti-Israel ideology: REPORT
The recent report notes how UCLA has received more than $4.3 billion in federal grants and contracts in less than four years while promoting expansive DEI initiatives and employing multiple anti-Israel faculty members.
The findings come as the university faces a legal battle over frozen federal funding, following the Trump administration's decision to freeze $584 million in federal grants to the university.
A new report from watchdog group Open The Books highlights that UCLA has received more than $4.3 billion in federal grants and contracts in less than four years while promoting expansive Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives and employing multiple anti-Israel faculty members.
The findings come as the university faces a legal battle over frozen federal funding, following the Trump administration’s decision to freeze $584 million in federal grants to the university.
The Aug. 13 report highlights a law professor who compared Israeli policy to Nazi Germany last year. One history professor mentioned in the report is listed on the advisory boards of both the U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel and Palestine Legal.
[RELATED: New report details ‘alarming’ rise in anti-Semitism on campuses]
UCLA has also pledged to become a federally recognized Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI), requiring at least 25 percent of its student body to be Hispanic. The university acknowledges that the designation would “make UCLA eligible for a range of federal grants,” and its HSI page says that the school is “taking bold, definitive steps toward advancing equity and inclusion.”
Despite recent federal executive orders aimed at eliminating DEI offices from government-funded institutions, UCLA continues to maintain an Office of Inclusive Excellence.
Federal DEI-linked grants include a $1 million annual award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for research on “equity and antiracist learning” in computer science, $1.6 million for an “equity-focused longitudinal study” on computing, and $216,000 to increase diversity in the mathematical sciences.
UCLA’s Foreign Language and Area Studies grants include professors Saree Makdisi and Sherene Razack who reportedly hosted a “Teach-In on the Crisis in Palestine” days after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.
Timothy Minella, senior fellow at the Goldwater’s Van Sittert Center for Constitutional Advocacy, told Campus Reform that the findings expose “the sickening anti-Semitism and other forms of racial discrimination that have infected UCLA, one of the most prominent public universities in the country.” He added, “Discriminatory DEI ideology should have no place at public universities, and the state and federal governments should take aggressive, targeted actions to root out this scourge once and for all.”
Monica Harris, executive director of the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR), described to Campus Reform “concerning patterns where institutional DEI implementations sometimes inadvertently create hostile environments for certain groups,” including “instances of anti-Jewish discrimination.”
[RELATED: Yale boosts security amid Title VI complaint over anti-Semitism on campus]
UCLA denies systemic anti-Semitism. Vice Chancellor for Strategic Communications Mary Osako told Campus Reform that the university has been “abundantly clear that antisemitism has no place on our campus,” pointing to new initiatives and disciplinary action against violators.
Meanwhile, a federal judge recently ordered the Trump administration to partially restore million in NSF funding to the universitiy. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has blasted the freeze as “extortion” and suggested the state may pursue legal action.
