University of California orders hiring freeze, cuts in response to Trump threats
- Share via
- The University of California will pause all hiring and make additional cuts to maintenance, business travel and other areas.
- The pullback comes in response to threats from the Trump administration to slash federal funding for universities.
- UC was already preparing ahead of proposed cuts in state funding.
The University of California on Wednesday announced a systemwide hiring freeze to stave off layoffs and downsizing as it confronts unprecedented threats by the Trump administration to slash medical and science research funding key to its mission as the nation’s premier public university system.
Saying American higher education is in a “time of great uncertainty,” President Michael V. Drake explained the decision in a Wednesday letter and during a UC regents meeting. He said the cutbacks would affect nearly every aspect of the far-reaching UC operation, including administrative offices and all 10 campuses.
“The new administration in Washington, D.C., has announced a number of executive orders and proposed policy changes, including ones that threaten funding for lifesaving research, patient care, and education support,” Drake said. Coupled with preparations the university was already making in response to a proposed $396.6-million state funding cut, Drake said he and chancellors were ready for “significant financial challenges ahead.”
The Trump administration’s slashing cut the state’s Office for Civil Rights, responsible for providing students protection from discrimination.
Hiring freeze
The UC actions announced Wednesday include a systemwide hiring freeze, delays in maintenance work and reductions in business travel. Drake said he also directed all UC locations to “prepare financial strategies and workforce management plans” to address shortfalls.
Drake did not announce layoffs. But UC officials said campus chancellors could cull employment rolls to cut costs. It is unclear whether the cost-cutting directives apply to salary increases. UC is also facing labor unrest among several of its more than two dozen unions, some in contract negotiations demanding higher pay and other workplace improvements.
Last month thousands of UC healthcare, research and technical employees walked off the job for three days, urging the university to address staffing shortages among other issues. On Wednesday, about 20 members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299 briefly shut down the UC regents meeting, protesting a pay proposal and treatment of members. The union represents patient care and service workers.
Pro-Palestinian students, who have protested on campus since regents began meetings Tuesday, also briefly occupied parts of an engineering building at UCLA and hung banners. They rallied for divestment from Israel and against what they said is an inadequate UC response to the Trump administration’s actions against pro-Palestinian student activists.
UC has thousands of openings across its 10 campuses, six academic medical centers and 20 health professional schools. At UCLA, there are hundreds of academic jobs posted online, and more than 1,000 health-related positions in nursing, medical research and other clinical and nonclinical roles.
With more unfilled positions, students could see fewer lecturers and class options, increased wait times to enroll in courses and bigger class sizes.
UC joins a growing list of universities nationwide that are shrinking their ambitions in response to President Trump‘s actions.
Hiring freezes have hit Stanford, Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, North Carolina State University, the University of Pittsburgh and MIT, among others. Within the UC system, UC San Diego already said last month that it was implementing its own hiring freeze.
Nationally, dozens of universities have renamed or gotten rid of diversity, equity and inclusion offices and positions in response to a directive from the Education Department that suggested DEI programs amount to illegal discrimination against white and Asian American students. UC has mostly resisted changing course, saying its diversity programs abide by federal and state law, including Proposition 209, which more than two decades ago banned the use of race in admissions to California’s public institutions.
At USC, a universitywide DEI office recently shut down and merged with a “culture” team. Departments deleted online diversity statements. The School of Cinematic Arts removed websites promoting a scholarship for Black and Indigenous students.
“These are attacks coming from Trump,” said Michael Chwe, a political science professor who joined a UCLA Faculty Assn. rally on Wednesday opposing White House actions against universities. “UCLA cannot submit to anything. Colleges and universities have been one of the foremost institutions in defense of democracy in the world. We have to resist now because it’s possible higher education as we know it might not exist in five or 10 years.”
Speaking at the regents meeting, UC Academic Senate Chair Steven W. Cheung said he and colleagues were looking at changes that could include the restructuring of academic programs — possibly through resizing — and “realignment of funding sources with activities.”
“The last ding-dong of doom has hardly clanged,” Cheung said. He later added: “As the university finds its footing in an increasingly challenging higher education landscape, our usual practices will be upended. The faculty will need to weigh in on what sacrifices will be required.”
The Justice Department filed documents supporting the right of students and faculty to sue and accusing UCLA of trying to ‘evade responsibility’ for alleged antisemitism.
The Trump administration has made multiple threats to defund schools and universities that it identifies as wasting federal money or as not aligned with the president’s opposition to DEI programs, transgender women playing on sports teams and pro-Palestinian student protests he deems “illegal.”
On Wednesday, the White House announced it had suspended $175 million in federal funding for the University of Pennsylvania over a transgender swimmer who last competed for the school in 2022. Trump signed an executive order intended to ban transgender athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports. The university said in a statement that it had not been formally notified of the change.
UC fights research cuts
Last month, UC submitted court documents to support a lawsuit California and 21 states filed in response to deep cuts and a potentially devastating hit to university budgets after the National Institutes of Health announced the removal of billions of dollars from overhead funding for grants focused on cancer, diabetes and other major disease research.
A Massachusetts judge ordered a temporary pause to the cuts while the case proceeds through federal court.
A judge halted NIH funding cuts that California and Democratic-run states say could harm life-saving medical research work at UC, Cal State and other universities. The suit said the cuts violated federal law.
The threat of losing NIH funding looms large at UC, which received $2.6 billion from the agency out of the system’s $4.2 billion in federal awards last year. San Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles campuses took in the bulk of the funding.
Drastic cuts to National Institutes of Health ‘indirect funds’ for medical research has prompted deep concerns at UC over how to continue studies into ‘life-saving treatments.’
At UCLA, about 10% of the $11-billion budget comes from the federal government, including the NIH, NASA, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Roughly $900 million of that is direct federal funding for research and projects that include medical and scientific areas, and an additional $200 million covers overhead.
Jan Nolta, who directs the stem cell program at the UC Davis medical school, said she opposes the hiring freeze in connection to uncertainty over the future of research funding.
“We are devastated. Hard to imagine that the United States does not want cures for cancer,” Nolta said. “Did they truly vote for this?”
During a university town hall last month, UCLA Chief Financial Officer Stephen Agostini and campus leaders said they were scrambling to find alternative funding sources and coming up short. “There’s really no way to sugarcoat it,” he said of the potential funding shortfall.
The Trump administration has also threatened to revoke federal money for universities that do not, in its view, comply with federal antidiscrimination law. This month, federal authorities canceled $400 million in grants to Columbia University, accusing it of mishandling pro-Palestinian protests and ignoring alleged incidents of antisemitism.
UC and several of its campuses are facing an onslaught of federal investigations or warnings — from the Justice and Education departments, a new multiagency task force on antisemitism and other agencies — over allegations that they have mistreated Jewish students and employees.
On Wednesday, Drake said UC would still “show up” for campus communities and others that the university system
aids.
“Throughout our history as an institution and as a nation, we have weathered struggles and found new ways to show up for the people we serve,” he wrote. “We will address these challenges, together. I have tremendous confidence in the team that is working on these issues, and in the dedication of our students, faculty, and staff.”
More to Read
Sign up for Essential California
The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
