The University of California, Los Angeles acted with “deliberate indifference” to threats against Jews and violations of their rights during an antisemitic encampment in spring 2024, a federal probe of the public school found.
“Our investigation into the University of California system has found concerning evidence of systemic antisemitism at UCLA that demands severe accountability from the institution,” stated Pamela Bondi, the U.S. attorney general.
“This disgusting breach of civil rights against students will not stand,” Bondi stated. “DOJ will force UCLA to pay a heavy price for putting Jewish Americans at risk and continue our ongoing investigations into other campuses in the UC system.”
The Justice Department is investigating the University of California system broadly for alleged violations of the civil rights law.
Stett Holbrook, associate director of strategic communications in the office of the UC president, told JNS that “UCLA has addressed and will continue to address the issues raised in yesterday’s Department of Justice notice, as evidenced by the UCLA settlement we announced yesterday.”
“We have cooperated fully with the Department of Justice’s investigation and are reviewing its findings closely,” he said.
In a letter to UC leaders, Justice Department officials wrote that Jewish and Israeli students at UCLA “were subjected to severe, pervasive and objectively offensive harassment that created a hostile environment by members of the encampment,” including being “assaulted, verbally harassed and physically prevented from accessing parts of the UCLA campus.”
The department officials noted that UCLA received at least 11 complaints from Jewish students. “UCLA’s documentation establishes that it did not outright ignore these complaints,” the officials wrote. “However, the university took no meaningful action to eliminate the hostile environment for Jewish and Israeli students caused by the encampment until it was disbanded on the morning of May 2.”
“The clearest way for UCLA to have eliminated the hostile environment is to have disbanded the encampment as soon as it became aware that Jewish and Israeli students were being physically assaulted and prevented from accessing parts of campus,” the officials added.
The Justice Department told UCLA it has until Aug. 5 to discuss entering a voluntary agreement with the government. “ Unless there is reasonable certainty that we can reach an agreement in this matter, the United States is prepared to file a complaint in federal district court by Sept. 2, 2025,” the department said.
