Existential threats

Thanks to whatever combination of cowardice and collaboration has caused numerous elite universities to submit to Trump’s shakedowns, he is escalating substantially:

University of California leaders said Friday they were stunned by a $1-billion demand from the Trump administration to settle federal accusations of antisemitism in exchange for restoring more than half a billion dollars in frozen grant funding to UCLA, with the new UC president saying the proposal would “completely devastate” the vaunted system.

A proposal from the federal government sent to UC said the university system should pay the billion-dollar fine in installments and contribute $172 million to a fund to pay Jewish students and other individuals affected by alleged violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. The statute covers illegal discrimination related to race, color, religion, sex, national origin or shared ancestry, including Jewish and Israeli identity.

In addition, the proposal demanded sweeping campus changes encompassing protests, admissions, gender identity in sports and housing, the abolition of scholarships for racial or ethnic groups, and submission to an outside monitor over the agreement.

In a statement Friday, UC President James B. Milliken, who oversees the 10-campus system that includes UCLA, appeared to rebuff the demand.

“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,” Milliken said. “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.”

Paying institution-threatening sums of money for the privilege of for all intents and purposes putting Chris Rufo in charge of your university should be the definition of “unacceptable,” and I hope UC won’t join the “hang separately” ranks.