Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday that University of California should not “submission to the president” to restore more than $5 billion in frozen UCLA grants as university leaders negotiate with the Trump administration and negotiate with the Trump administration on anti-Semitism allegations.
Newsom mocked Trump’s settlement with two Ivy League universities attacks. Columbia and Brown agreed to pay huge fines and make comprehensive campus changes in exchange for funding for resuming research, which also canceled Trump’s anti-Semitism allegations. Harvard University is also negotiating with the government on similar allegations.
“We’re not brown, we’re not Colombia, if we were doing that, I wouldn’t be governor,” Newsom said. “Time. All stop, I’ll fight like hell to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
The Columbia and Brown agreement includes highly critical spending. Columbia will pay more than $200 million to the federal government, while Brown will also pay $50 million to the Rhode Island workforce program, in addition to pledging to share admission data with federal authorities. The Trump administration accuses elite universities, including UCLA, of illegally considering a person’s race when deciding who to admit.
Colombia also agreed to review the Middle East Research Program and submit an external monitor to monitor whether the program follows the solution. Faculty accuses the university’s leaders of coveted higher education value for academic freedom independent of government or political influence.
Newsom’s comment is his first public comment on how UC should be with Trump, and the first sign (if vague) that the way UC settles with Trump may or may not be viewed.
The university is chaired by its chairman and board of directors and is independent under the state constitution of “all political or sectarian influence.” Meanwhile, the governor can have political influence on the members he appointed. Newsom also has a special seat on the board.
Newsom spoke in San Francisco, commenting during the media Q&A following events about the AI Workforce Partnership and following events with Google, Adobe, IBM and Microsoft about the AI Workforce Partnership.
“There are principles. It’s right and wrong, and we’ll do the right thing. It’s about our competitiveness. It’s about the fate and future of this country. It’s about our sovereignty. It’s about our temperament more than the current suffering of the President of the United States,” Newsom said.
When asked about the UC negotiations, Newsom said: “They will do the right thing.”
“I have confidence that I will do everything I can to encourage them to do the right thing, rather than be another law firm that bent over, another company that sells their souls or another institution, or take a shortcut and make an easy mistake, and the hard right with the hard right.”
A UC and UCLA spokesperson did not immediately answer questions about Newsom’s comments on Thursday.
UC President James B. Milliken said Wednesday that the university system “agrees to engage in dialogue with the federal government,” after the Justice Department sent a letter to UC last week that he found that UCLA violated the civil rights of Jewish students after activists established a professional Palestine camp in April 2024.
Milliken said the goal of the negotiations is to restore all “all suspensions and dangerous federal funds to the university as soon as possible.”
The grant suspension will affect research in areas such as neuroscience, clean energy and cancer. Department of Justice and the United States. General Pam Bondi said on July 28 that the UCLA acted with “deliberate indifference” to civil rights against Jews and Israeli students, who have complained about the civil rights of anti-Semitic events since October 7, 2023. Hamas attacks Israel attacks Hamas’ war on the date mark since the date.
“The cuts do not help address anti-Semitism. In addition, the broad work taken by UCLA and the University of California has been clearly overlooked. Obviously, the announced cuts will be a death cut for innovative efforts that can save our economy and save our national security in our national security. This is the best victory for our country. It is the best interest in our country.
UCLA Prime Minister Julio Frenk said in a campus-wide letter Wednesday that the suspension of grants “has caused a devastating crisis for UCLA and Americans across the country.”
Taryn Luna, a Times worker, contributed to the report.
