Judge orders UC to publicize federal administration’s settlement demands
Last Tuesday, a judge ruled that the University of California Board of Regents must publish the Trump administration’s proposed settlement for UC Los Angeles’ alleged civil rights violations. According to the Daily Bruin, the Regents have until Oct. 24 to present the draft proposal.
The UCLA Faculty Association and Council of University of California Faculty Associations first filed the lawsuit on Sept. 17 to gain access to the proposal.
This past summer, the federal government revoked 800 science research grants from UCLA for allegedly using race-based admissions, allowing transgender women to compete in women’s sports and failing to promote an environment free of antisemitism and bias.
The Trump administration offered a settlement in response, which included a $1.2 billion fine and several demands that pertained to overnight demonstrations, race and ethnicity-based scholarship and single-sex housing for women, among others. Since then, judges have ordered the federal government to reinstate virtually all grants, which amounted to $584 million.
UCSD shares student, staff, faculty names with federal administration
According to UC San Diego’s The Guardian, UCSD shared “personally identifiable information” of faculty, staff and students with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR).
The Guardian received confirmation that the federal government received this information in September, and as of early October, UCSD has not notified those whose information was shared. No other information is known at this time, including how many names were shared and what their exact affiliation to the University is.
The UCSD Faculty Defense Group told The Guardian in early September that all the individuals had some relation to “complaints of harassment and discrimination.”
In August, UC Berkeley shared the names of around 160 students and faculty members with the OCR as part of an investigation into alleged antisemitism. This was done as part of the voluntary agreement made last December between the UC and the OCR. At the time, former UC President Michael V. Drake released a statement that said the agreement was made as part of the University’s efforts to “combat discrimination and harassment based on national origin, including Jewish, Israeli, Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim ancestry, and/or association with these actual or perceived identities.”
Amidst the news that Berkeley shared personal information about its community with the federal government, UCSD faculty requested more information about the University’s involvement.
“There’s been no communication. So unlike at Berkeley, where all of those faculty, staff, and students were informed, we’ve been basically not informed or kept in the dark,” Javier Duarte, a board member for the UCSD Faculty Association, told ABC News San Diego before The Guardian confirmed the information release.
A version of this article appeared on p. 2 of the Oct. 23 print edition of the Daily Nexus.
