Trump administration demands $1bn from UCLA to restore federal funding
Source: The Guardian
University of California president says ‘a payment of this scale would completely devastate’ public university system
UCLA is the first public university whose federal grants have been targeted by the administration over allegations of civil rights violations related to antisemitism and affirmative action. The Trump administration has frozen or paused federal funding over similar allegations against private colleges.
The new University of California president, James B Milliken, who oversees a university system of 10 campuses, six academic health centers and three affiliated national laboratories, confirmed on Friday that the university had received notice from the justice department and is reviewing it.
“Earlier this week, we offered to engage in good faith dialogue with the Department to protect the University and its critical research mission”, Milliken said. “As a public university, we are stewards of taxpayer resources and a payment of this scale would completely devastate our country’s greatest public university system as well as inflict great harm on our students and all Californians.
“Americans across this great nation rely on the vital work of UCLA and the UC system for technologies and medical therapies that save lives, grow the U.S. economy, and protect our national security,” he added.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/08/trump-ucla-settlement
Every one of these institutions that bends the knee is enabling the onslaught against the rest.
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... except all the "Ivies" are private, not state, schools and they've closed the gates on anybody else getting in.
My point is that the Ivy League schools stay in business through donations & bequests from their wealthy alumni. And UCLA can do the same, they just need to set it up. Make it financially conducive for alumni to make tax-free donations and bequests to keep the school going.
That way, UCLA would no longer be beholden to Uncle Sam for the federal handouts. They can thumb their noses at the petty tyrants in Washington ... people like Chump who like to get revenge whenever they can, because they have nothing else to live for.
Its endowment total was at $9.79 billion as of FY2024, and is probably higher as of today. Pretty good for a state school even if it's only 20% as much as Harvard, the country's oldest university.
BUT --- UCLA has a much higher economic impact than the Ivies.
The university has a significant impact in the Los Angeles economy. It is the fifth largest employer in the county (after Los Angeles County, the Los Angeles Unified School District, the federal government and the City of Los Angeles) and the seventh largest in the region.[156][157] UCLA consistently has the highest revenue of all the universities in University of California system.[158]
Trademarks and licensing
The UCLA trademark "is the exclusive property of the Regents of the University of California",[159] but it is managed, protected, and licensed through UCLA Trademarks and Licensing, a division of the Associated Students UCLA, the largest student employer on campus.[160][161] As such, the ASUCLA also has a share in trademark profits.
Apparel, fashion accessories and other items with UCLA'S logo and insignea are popular in many parts of the world due to both the university's academic and athletic prestige, and its association with colorful images of Southern California life and culture. This demand for UCLA-branded merchandise has inspired the licensing of its trademark to UCLA brand stores throughout Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Since 1980, 15 UCLA stores have opened in South Korea, and 49 are currently open in China. The newest store recently opened in Kuwait;[162] there are also stores in Mexico, Singapore and India.[163] UCLA earns about $400,000 in royalties each year through its international licensing program.[163]
Here are its global rankings with all other universities of repute; read the link and learn that its national rankings are even higher.
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2024-25 ranks UCLA 18th in the world for academics, No. 2 US Public University for academics, and
15th in the world for reputation.[96]
In 2020, it ranked 16th among the universities around the world by SCImago Institutions Rankings.[97]
UCLA was ranked 43rd in the QS World University Rankings in 2024 and 13th in the world (11th in North America) by the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) in 2024.
In 2017, the Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) ranked the university 15th in the world based on quality of education, alumni employment, quality of faculty, publications, influence, citations, broad impact, and patents.[98]
The 2025 U.S. News & World Report Best Global University Rankings report ranked UCLA 11th in the world.[99] The CWTS Leiden ranking of universities based on scientific impact for 2017 ranks UCLA 14th in the world.[100] The University Ranking by Academic Performance (URAP) conducted by Middle East Technical University for 2016–2017 ranked UCLA 12th in the world based on the quantity, quality and impact of research articles and citations.[101]
The Webometrics Ranking of World Universities for 2017 ranked UCLA 11th in the world based on the presence, impact, openness and excellence of its research publications.[102]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_California,_Los_Angeles#Economic_impact
I realize the difference between private and public university funding, but the upper half of public universities are not stuck with only state and federal funding.
That's all this is: extortion and nothing but. 
How could that make sense to pay up?
