The Trump administration has sent the University of California, Los Angeles a draft agreement demanding more than $1 billion to resolve a civil-rights investigation that accuses the campus of failing to protect Jewish and Israeli students during pro-Palestinian protests in 2024. If accepted, the payment would far exceed penalties already negotiated with Columbia University ($221 million) and Brown University ($50 million) and would be the largest such settlement ever sought from an American university. According to people who have reviewed the document, the proposal would require UCLA to contribute about $172 million to a fund compensating those who claim civil-rights violations, abolish scholarships that consider race or ethnicity, end the use of diversity statements in hiring and accept a government-appointed monitor. In exchange, the federal government would restore roughly $584 million in research grants that were frozen this week. University of California President James B. Milliken said the settlement "would completely devastate" the 10-campus public system and harm students statewide. UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk warned that the loss of federal support already jeopardises medical and scientific projects "vital to the country’s health, safety and economic future." The university and the UC system said they have begun reviewing the Justice Department’s offer. California Governor Gavin Newsom called the demand "political extortion" and vowed that the state "will not bow" to the administration. Other state officials echoed that stance, arguing the threatened funding freeze infringes on academic freedom and free-speech rights. The push against UCLA is part of a broader campaign in which the administration has leveraged control over federal research dollars to pressure universities it says tolerated antisemitism. Negotiations with Harvard and several other institutions remain under way, while civil-rights and higher-education groups warn that the strategy risks chilling campus dissent.