Feds Sue UCLA Again, Say Students Faced 'Pervasive On-Campus Antisemitism'

LOS ANGELES — The federal government on Tuesday sued the University of California for what it described as “deliberate indifference” to “pervasive on-campus antisemitism” at its Los Angeles campus in violation of the Civil Rights Act.

In the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks and following war between Israel and Palestine, students were assaulted, excluded from campus and deprived of educational opportunities because of their perceived Jewish or Israeli heritage, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Subscribe

The unrest came to a head in April 2024, when a protest encampment outside Royce Hall was erected, and Jewish and Israeli students were “slapped, kicked, beat with sticks, doused with pepper spray, and knocked unconscious,” according to the department.

“Earlier this year, we sued UCLA for subjecting its Jewish and Israeli employees to an antisemitic hostile work environment,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the department’s Civil Rights Division said Tuesday in a news release.

“Now, the Department of Justice calls UCLA to account for its toleration of the equally appalling hostile educational environment against its Jewish and Israeli students.”

The department also alleged that through its violation of Civil Rights Act Title VI, the school breached its funding contracts and grants with the federal government.

Tuesday’s 53-page complaint constitutes the government’s third lawsuit against the state university system this year, the Los Angeles Times reported, adding the government wants UCLA to repay grant funds going back over two years, possibly totaling hundreds of millions of dollars.

UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk disputed the department's allegations in a prepared statement Tuesday.

“Let me be direct: the suggestion that UCLA has been passive in the face of antisemitism is simply wrong," he said in the statement. "Combating antisemitism is a moral imperative — one rooted, for me, in personal history that makes indifference unthinkable."

The university's actions in the last year to combat antisemitism include recruiting an associate vice chancellor for campus and community safety, reorganizing the school's Civil Rights Office, appointing a Title VI officer, and strengthening policies to protect both free expression and safety, according to Frenk.