Actions

• Fund California Science

  Please consider signing on to an open letter in support of the California Science and Health Research Bond Act. This bill places a bond on the 2026 ballot to create and fund the California Foundation for Science and Health Research, which would award grants and make loans to public or private research companies, universities, institutes, and health care organizations in the State of California for scientific research and development.

• Faculty action saves President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program (PPFP)

  On November 21, 2025, UC President Milliken reversed course and pledged to continue funding the hiring incentive for the Presidential Postdocs Fellowship Program. This represents a significant faculty organizing win. The UCLA Faculty Association thanks the thousands of faculty who signed letters, sent emails, and spread the word quickly! 

• Stop suppressing our free speech rights

  On November 19, 2025, four UCLA undergraduate students were arrested by UCLA police while picketing in support of AFSCME 3299’s protected strike. On November 20, 2025, two UCLA graduate student members of UAW 4811 were detained by university police on Wednesday at a union action about contract violations and labor cuts. The UCLA Faculty Association joined with AFSCME 3299, UAW 4811, Teamsters Local 2010, UPTE CWA 9119, UCLA Chapter of University Council – AFT, UC-AFT Local 1474, the UCLA Undergraduate Students Association, and all of our sibling UC Faculty Associations to condemn UC’s violation of our free speech and organizing…

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  Judge Grants Preliminary Injunction in AAUP vs. Trump Case

  On November 14, 2025, the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California granted the plaintiffs in AAUP v. Trump, including UCLA-FA, a preliminary injunction! By temporary court order, the federal government is now prohibited from holding federal funds hostage in an effort to coerce the University of California into imposing policies that would violate our first amendment rights.   This order means that the Trump administration is now explicitly prohibited from doing the following: In last week’s preliminary injunction hearing, lawyers from Alshuler, Berzon—Connie Chan and Stacey Leyton—were able to argue convincingly, based on a mountain of evidence assembled by the team…

• Academic Senate unanimously passes resolution to request UCLA administrators share Trump “demand letter”

  On September 30, 2025, we spearheaded a special meeting of the Legislative Assembly of the UCLA Academic Senate, which unanimously passed a resolution, 116 votes in favor and zero opposed, to request that Chancellor Julio Frenk share the Trump “demand letter” with the public.

• We sued the Trump administration to protect the UC, our rights, and our values.

  On September 16, a coalition of 21 groups including the UCLA Faculty Association filed suit to stop “the unlawful threat of federal funding cuts not authorized by law to illegally coerce the UC into suppressing free speech and academic freedom rights, implementing harmful federal policies on the Trump administration’s behalf and otherwise violating the constitutional and state law rights of UC faculty, students, academic employees, and staff employees.” Our lawsuit was covered by the Los Angeles Times and more information is here and here. Also, on September 15, the Council of UC Faculty Associations (CUCFA) filed suit to compel the UC to publicly share the Trump administration $1 billion…

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  Save Trans Health Care at UC

  Over 1600 UC faculty, staff, students, and community members have signed the open letter to Save Gender-Affirming & Trans Healthcare at UCLA. We demand: No cuts, restrictions, or limitations on gender-affirming care at UC and No capitulation to anti-trans demands. Please consider signing.

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  Jews in Defense of UC

  Over 600 Jewish faculty, staff, students, and community members in the University of California have signed the letter Jews in Defense of UC stating: “The Administration’s demand that UCLA pay the federal government $1 billion, along with a $172 million claims fund, is misguided and punitive. Cutting off hundreds of millions of research funds will do nothing to make UCLA safer for Jews nor diminish antisemitism in the world.” The letter was covered in the Los Angeles Times. On the same day, the opinion piece “Trump’s claim of fighting antisemitism at UCLA is a dangerous charade” by David N. Myers (UCLA faculty), Aaron…

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  UC Law Faculty to Regents: Fight Illegal Funding Cuts 

  Over 170 University of California law faculty have signed a public statement: “We urge Governor Newsom and the UC Regents to continue to stand up for the fundamental principles of the rule of law, due process, and equal protection. A defense of the University of California’s rights in court will model respect for these bedrock principles of equality and fairness, and it will ensure that the government honors them. The Trump Administration’s failure to abide by the law subverts these principles by denying the University of California a fair opportunity to contest the government’s charges of unlawful discrimination before an impartial…

• UC Stand Up For Our Values

  On August 1, 2025, we released an open letter (please sign here) in response to the Trump administration’s suspension of roughly eight hundred federal research grants to UCLA scholars. This letter has received over 2400 signatures, including from over 1100 UC faculty, and has been covered in the national and international press. We demand that the UC Office of the President immediately challenge the Trump administration attacks in court and collaborate with Governor Newsom and the California state legislature to supplement this shortfall. We further ask that the university administration explore using a portion of the over $5 billion in unrestricted endowment funds to help keep…

• UC Regents: Stop the Cuts

  On July 15, the UCLA Faculty Association joined with UC-AFT, the union of teaching faculty and librarians at the UC, to tell the UC Regents (during their annual meeting at UCLA) to stop the cuts! Over 170 lecturers and librarians in the UC have had their classes cut and their jobs reduced or eliminated, and many are still awaiting their reappointment letters for the fall. We need to tell the Regents that these drastic and unnecessary cuts have consequences. UC-AFT is asking everyone to sign this petition and fill out this form to get involved.

• Stoles for commencement

  For faculty and students to wear at commencement, we made roughly 200 stoles stating “Stop Deportations/Protect Students.”

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  UCLA faculty helped support our commencement ceremonies.

  UCLA’s commencement weekend from June 13 to June 15 was preceded by reports of ICE agents abducting people at school graduation ceremonies in the Los Angeles area. Organizers of several ceremonies including the Latinx Graduation and the Lavender Extravaganza requested additional security but UCLA did not provide any. Thus the UCLA Faculty Association solicited volunteers to create a faculty presence outside these celebrations.

• Faculty have significant concerns about Trellix.

  On May 5, 2025, UCLA administrators announced that by June 1, all UCLA employees must install “Trellix Endpoint Security” on their devices, even personal ones, to access “select critical UCLA applications.” Information collected by the Trellix software is not under the user’s control, and there is the danger that it might be given to government authorities. A previous version of Trellix, called “FireEye,” was hacked in 2021 by “a nation with top-tier offensive capabilities.” The Trellix software is also computationally demanding and slows down other computer processes. These and other concerns were raised by a letter by the UC system-wide Academic Senate in June…

• The Council of University of California Faculty Associations (CUCFA) and UC-AFT calls upon UC to immediately address Student Visa Revocations.

  On April 6, 2025, the Council of University of California Faculty Associations (CUCFA) and UC-AFT Local 1474, representing UC non-ladder faculty and librarians, called upon UC administrators with five demands: (1) UC should provide legal support to any member of our community whose visa has been revoked; (2) any student who is detained or deported must be able to complete their degrees remotely; (3) all fellowships, stipends, and salaries must be guaranteed even if a community member is deported; (4) any staff or faculty member who is detained or deported must be able to work remotely and receive their salary;…

• UCLA faculty are deeply concerned about the planned closing of the Fernald Childcare Center on campus.

  On March 20, UCLA faculty and concerned parents issued a press release stating that “The UCLA community is uniting in defense of the Fernald Center, a beloved on-campus early childhood education facility, in light of its proposed closure.”

• The UCLA Faculty Association joined our colleagues at all ten UC campuses to defend higher education and political freedom.

  The Council of University of California Faculty Associations (CUCFA) called for an Emergency Day of Action on all ten UC campuses on March 19 to protest the Trump adminstration’s attacks on higher education. We call for the release of Mahmoud Khalil and Leqaa Kordia, protecting our campuses from DHS/ICE, protecting all of us regardless of immigration status, and a stop to federal and state funding cuts. Our rally was covered in the Los Angeles Times and the Daily Bruin.

• More than sixty Jewish faculty and staff at UCLA have signed the letter “Not In Our Name.”

  In the letter, more than sixty Jewish faculty and staff at UCLA write “to express our unequivocal opposition to the arrest and detention of former Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil, and Columbia University’s subsequent expulsion, suspension, and diploma revocation of dozens of pro-Palestinian protestors, apparently in response to demands from the Trump administration. We are vehemently opposed to efforts by the federal government to arrest, deport, or pressure universities to discipline students, staff, or faculty at UCLA or at any university who are deemed politically unacceptable by virtue of their support of freedom for the Palestinian people.” The letter was covered…

• Executive actions are threatening higher education.

  On February 19, we joined UAW 4811 for the nationwide “Hands Off Our Healthcare, Our Research, and Our Jobs” action. The Trump administration attacks on higher education are summarized here by the AAUP and here, a live document supported by the work of UCLA scholars. The UC is asking all of us to protect biomedical research by contacting our elected officials here.

• Faculty File Historic Academic Freedom Unfair Labor Practice Charges Against UC

  Faculty from across the UC system — long synonymous with the Free Speech Movement — have organized to fight a systematic, illegal campaign to repress academic freedom  via cucfa.org Los Angeles, CA – Today, the Council of University of California Faculty Associations (CUCFA) and faculty associations from seven University of California (UC) campuses filed an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charge against the UC administration with the California Public Employee Relations Board (PERB). This systemwide ULP filing builds on a filing by the UCLA Faculty Association this spring. It asserts that UC violated the law, its own policies, and both the…