Judge orders UC to release Trump UCLA settlement offer at the center of private negotiations

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A state court on Wednesday ordered the University of California to release the $1.2-billion UCLA settlement proposal from the Department of Justice, handing a victory to faculty members who are pushing UC for more transparency in its negotiations with the Trump administration.The one-sentence decision signed by 1st Appellate District acting Presiding Justice Carin T.Fujisaki means that UC has until Friday to disclose a 28-page document that describes federal demands for vast policy changes at UCLA that are in line with President Trump’s vision for higher education.Last month, the UCLA Faculty Assn.

sued UC after the university rejected its public records requests.The association is an independent organization unaffiliated with the Academic Senate, the body that formally represents all UCLA faculty in relations with campus administrators.UC had appealed an earlier lower-court ruling.

The appeals court suggested it agreed with an Oct.14 order from an Oakland-based judge giving UC until Oct.

24 to release the document.That judge, Rebekah Evenson, of the Superior Court of Alameda County, said the Public Records Act and public interest in deliberations over one of the nation’s top universities compels UC to disclose the more than 7,000-word proposal.In a statement, UC spokesperson Rachel Zaentz said that the university is “reviewing and evaluating the court’s recent ruling.”“We are committed to being transparent about the challenges facing the university, but we must also evaluate our response to the administration’s settlement proposal that, like all settlement communications, is confidential.

UC remains committed to protecting the mission, governance, and academic freedom of the university,” Zaentz said.Zaentz did not indicate that UC would further appeal to the Supreme Court of California.The August settlement proposal came after the Trump administration accused...