The University of California, Los Angeles agreed to pay $6.4 million Tuesday to settle a discrimination complaint brought by three Jewish students and a medical school professor after last spring’s pro-Palestinian demonstrations on the campus.
The settlement comes after two law students and an undergraduate student filed a lawsuit against UCLA, alleging the university allowed a group of students and outsiders to set up a pro-Palestinian encampment that forcibly kept Jewish students and faculty from accessing critical parts of campus. The suit claimed that UCLA reinforced the encampments by providing metal barriers and sending away Jewish students and faculty.
UCLA will pay $50,000 to each plaintiff, and about $2.3 million will be donated to eight groups that work with Jewish communities or issues, including Hillel at UCLA, the Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish Federation Los Angeles’s Campus Impact Network, among others. The university will also distribute $320,000to a UCLA initiative to combat antisemitism, while the rest of the funds will go toward legal fees.
“This settlement is an important and meaningful step forward in addressing the very serious challenges that Jewish students have faced at UCLA,” Executive Director of UCLA Hillel Daniel Gold said. “There is still much more work left to be done to build a safer, more welcoming, and more supportive campus that is free from antisemitic harassment and intimidation, and we look forward to working closely with the university and the UC system to counter antisemitism and bias at every turn.”
The lawsuit alleged the so-called pro-Palestinian zones broke civil rights laws and discriminated against the university’s Jewish students. The over $6 million agreement is believed to be the largest private settlement in a campus antisemitism case, plaintiffs’ attorneys said.
“The injunction and other terms UCLA has agreed to demonstrate real progress in the fight against antisemitism,” according to a joint statement from the parties.
The University of California Board of Regents Chair Janet Reilly recognized the university’s missteps in her statement Tuesday.
“Antisemitism, harassment, and other forms of intimidation are antithetical to our values and have no place at the University of California,” she said. “We have been clear about where we have fallen short, and we are committed to doing better moving forward. Today’s settlement reflects a critically important goal that we share with the plaintiffs: to foster a safe, secure and inclusive environment for all members of our community and ensure that there is no room for antisemitism anywhere on campus.”
The university defended its handling of the protests in August 2024, pushing back on a federal order that would protect Jewish students’ access to campus areas occupied by pro-Palestinian protesters, calling U.S. district judge Mark C. Scarsi’s ruling “improper.”
