Alicia Verdugo, a student at the University of California, Los Angeles, announced on Tuesday that she is resigning as cultural affairs commissioner of the UCLA Undergraduate Students Association Council two days before she was slated to appear before the student government’s judicial board amid allegations of Jew-hatred, the Daily Bruin, a student paper, reported.
Screenshots attributed to Verdugo appeared to show her directing staff not to hire “Zionist” applicants. Bella Brannon, a senior at UCLA, filed a complaint, stating that Verdugo’s actions violated university policies, as well as state and federal anti-discrimination laws by intentionally discriminating against Jewish students, per the paper. (The Daily Bruin referred to Verdugo with both the pronouns “she” and “they.”)
Students at the public university who self-identified as Jewish without mentioning Israel had their applications rejected by Verdugo’s office, the New York Post reported. (JNS sought comment from UCLA.)
In a post on a Cultural Affairs Commission at UCLA social-media account on Wednesday, Verdugo wrote, “I am so proud of how we have led the commission this past year.” She added that the student group’s “extensive cultural and political history on this campus has shown how we will always prioritize the safety and empowerment of our black, indigenous, students of color on our campus.”
Hillel at UCLA welcomed Verdugo’s resignation.
“It is no surprise that this comes ahead of this week’s judicial board hearing that intended to hold them responsible for a pattern of antisemitism, including the most recent incident of clear discrimination against Jewish students when hiring for roles within” the student government, the student board of the UCLA Hillel told JNS.
“We commend and stand with Bella Brannon, who courageously took a stand publicly against the Cultural Affairs Commission to call for this judicial hearing, as well as with all other Jewish students who have faced similar antisemitism hate and antisemitic discrimination on our campus,” the student board said.
“Antisemitism has no place at UCLA, and we hope that the Cultural Affairs Commission’s resignation stands as an example that we will not stand idly by to those who continue to think they can get away with promoting antisemitic rhetoric and discriminatory actions,” the student board added. It also called on the UCLA administration to “do their part in supporting Jewish Bruins.”
The UCLA Undergraduate Students Association Council still lists Verdugo as an officer on its site.
“In May 2024, Verdugo was arrested while protesting at UCLA’s unlawful anti-Israel protest encampment,” according to Canary Mission.
“In a video published on May 1, 2024, Verdugo called for Israel’s destruction during an interview as UCLA’s ‘encampment media liaison,’” the watchdog added. “When a reporter accused Verdugo of promoting the ‘destruction of Israel,’ Verdugo replied, ‘Yes! Because the destruction of Israel will put an end to the siege on Gaza and an end to the occupation!’”
In the final days of the Biden administration, the U.S. Department of Education announced in January that it was closing an investigation after finding that UCLA did not violate Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act in its response to Jew-hatred in 2018 during a Students for Justice in Palestine event on campus.