UC president announces hiring freeze and other cuts

Published Mar 19, 2025 6:59 PM

A concrete walkway flanked by low bushes and greenery on the campus of UCLA. 3 people are jogging along the pathway. Two lightpoles have banners hanging off them that read "UCLA Go Bruins."

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University of California President Michael Drake announced a hiring freeze across the university system and directed campuses to cut travel, maintenance and other costs Wednesday during a meeting of the UC Board of Regents at UCLA.

He said the cuts were a response to a threat, not yet fulfilled, by the Trump administration to cut federal contracts and grants from universities. President Donald Trump has threatened federal funding to colleges that do not eliminate DEI programs.

The existing budget cuts have already had the effect of eroding our day to day working conditions and our ability to fulfill student needs.

— Patricia Morton, UC Riverside media and cultural studies professor

UC is already spending less

Wednesday’s UC Regents meeting included a report outlining a 5.2% drop in expenses systemwide in the last half of 2024.

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UC entered the current fiscal year with less funding for the following programs:

Climate Action Research Initiative.
Breast Cancer Research awards.
Tobacco-Related Disease Research.
President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program.

“The existing budget cuts have already had the effect of eroding our day-to-day working conditions and our ability to fulfill student needs,” said Patricia Morton, UC Riverside media and cultural studies professor.

Drake’s announcement, she said, “raises the question of whether [he] and the regents even understand the drastic impact the hiring freeze and further budget cuts will have on the university, and especially on our students' learning experience and ability to complete their degrees.”

The midyear spending report predicted spending drops will continue for the above programs, as well as these:

Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs.
Graduate Medical Education.
Office of the National Laboratories.

Future cuts proposed

Drake's announcement reached faculty who were protesting on Wednesday a proposed 8% across-the-board budget cut to the University of California for the next fiscal year.

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“We don't think that that is in line with any of the UC's core values, nor with the values of most of the taxpayers of California,” said UC Irvine's Annie McClanahan, who chairs the board of the faculty association on her campus.