Terence Tao on the suspension of UCLA grants

California higher education in general does not need of federal funds. These are typically mutually beneficially projects that doesn't necessarily need to be partnered with the US government.

The bigger problem is the recipients of these cuts seem to think it is about an "issue", and are incapable of accepting they are having sand kicked in their face.

There is actually a stated issue that is the reason: anti-semitism. Isn’t it reasonable to want to understand more and gain the kind of influence to affect change of this magnitude?

Yes, however it is well documented that some of those issues exist, no one denies that. One of the civilian deaths early on in the Israel/Palestine protests was by a professor of a local college in LA. Perhaps a bigger problem for California is they have 20,000 Chinese students, 36% of international revenue. That will probably drop significantly.

UCLA does some pretty amazing work though. They recently published a study on the Los Angeles "mansion tax" that basically called it a failure. They did that for free, with no grants or funding. That is the kind of actual policy work and studies you would expect to see from a university, and it includes a master class on how modern urban property development works in mature urban areas such as Los Angeles.

Unfortunately work like that is overshadowed by the protesters that hijack other protests and bring in outsiders who cause property damage and violence.

https://www.lewis.ucla.edu/2025/05/14/los-angeless-mansion-t...

https://www.lewis.ucla.edu/research/the-unintended-consequen...