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Dear President Drake, Chancellor Frenk, and the UC Board of Regents:
I am Ev Nichols, a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Neurobiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine. As you know, the Trump administration has suspended over $200 million in research grants awarded to scholars at UCLA. My lab’s NIH funding was among the terminated grants late last week. While we have alternate funding sources, it is devastating to witness the slowing pace of research on campus.
I appreciate Chancellor Frenk’s message last week and his commitment to focusing on the social good of UCLA’s research and the protection of the interests of faculty, students and staff. I am writing today to urge you to not sacrifice these interests in pursuit of a resolution to this government overreach.
UCLA was notified of the impending grant suspensions in a letter from United States Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, Harmeet K. Dhillon. This letter alleges anti-semitic discrimination on UCLA’s campus and invites the university to enter a “voluntary resolution” through negotiations with federal officials.
The federal government has recently made similar allegations against Columbia University, Harvard University, Brown University, Johns Hopkins University, Northwestern University, and others. The University of Pennsylvania has also been targeted for following then-NCAA regulations by allowing a trans woman to compete on the women’s swimming team.
From the “voluntary resolutions” reached with other universities, we know that these civil rights allegations are merely false pretenses. Rather than addressing the alleged misconduct, the negotiated resolutions fundamentally reshape campus life in the mold of the Trump administration’s regressive sociopolitical projects.
For example in order to resolve allegations of anti-semitism and to restore federal grant funding, Brown agreed to deny equal rights to trans students and to stop treating trans minors with life-saving health care. Harvard has quietly removed websites for student affinity groups, including the Women’s Center, the Office for BGLTQ Student Life, and the Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations. It remains unclear whether these vital offices will return in the upcoming academic year.
Columbia has paid the highest price. The university will now be subject to federal oversight (via a “resolution monitor”) and forfeited academic independence. They further promised to erase recognition of trans students and stifle students’ free speech rights.
Together, these stories paint a vivid picture of the administration’s approach to negotiations with universities: it’s just extortion. And our government will continue to feast on academic concessions until the entire American university system is under firm control of federal authoritarianism.
Again, Columbia is illustrative given that it has twice settled with Trump administration - once in March and once in late July. The second round of negotiations extracted $200 million from the university. Only time will reveal the true price of Columbia’s capitulation.
Yet, the UC system is fundamentally distinct compared to Columbia, Brown, and Harvard. We are a collection of public universities that serve the people of California and beyond. As a reflection of that mandate, the UC’s mission is to provide “long-term societal benefits” through teaching, research, and acts of public service.
Selling out your faculty, students, staff, and community is not part of this mission. We include queer and trans people, communities of color, international students (who have been subject to arbitrary changes to their legal status), and undocumented people (who are already terrorized by the presence of ICE in Los Angeles).
This targeted action by the Trump administration is pretextual extortion. The federal government’s goal is the trampling of campus culture, represented by UCLA’s commitment to inclusive excellence.
In no circumstance (at UCLA or elsewhere) has the Trump administration proven or adjudicated evidence of a Title VI violation. Previous institutions where federal officials have alleged wrongdoing have settled through voluntary negotiation in which they sacrificed their dignity and their campus community.
The University of California, Los Angeles must not follow in these footsteps of institutional betrayal. Securing concessions from UCLA will only prompt the administration to serially employ government by extortion - soon shifting to Berkeley, San Diego, Irvine, Davis, Riverside, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Merced, and San Francisco.
I ask that you honor Chancellor Frenk’s commitment to safeguard the interests and values of the campus community. These interests are our interests:
The UC system and UCLA must mount a vigorous defense students’ rights to free speech, expression, and association. You must commit to protecting access to gold-standard health care for trans people and to honoring California law which prohibits discrimination against trans and gender non-conforming people. You must reject entreaties to dismantle community centers which fundamentally shape student success. In short, you must not capitulate.
As a trans woman and a research scientist, I cannot choose between the ability to use the bathroom at work and duly awarded grant funding. Neither of these scenarios is acceptable, and deciding between the two is a false choice from our extortionists.
Thank you for your time and consideration. I eagerly await a community-centered resolution and the return of UCLA’s federal grant funding.
Sincerely,
Ev L. Nichols, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Scholar
Department of Neurobiology
University of California, Los Angeles
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