Opinion: Unlike at Columbia, Trump’s attack on UCLA is aimed at California taxpayer money

President Donald Trump s demand for a whopping billion payment from UCLA sent shock waves through the UC system For those of us on the inside the announcement elicited a range of responses Several faculty and staff reacted with horror others voiced increasing fear about the ongoing assault on academic freedom and particular merely muttered in sad resignation to the new reality I laughed The president has decided to poke the bear and the Bears and the Bruins too Whether Trump knows it or not targeting the University of California is very different from going after private Ivy League institutions with deep historical ties to political power Related Articles French Trump is deploying troops into American cities and its heritage wars Mexico says there s no agreement with DEA for new frontier enforcement collaboration Trump just put an extra tariff on hundreds of common items from deodorant to butter knives Gov Newsom wants an vote in a hurry on his gerrymander Here s what has to happen US seeks Intel stake without governance rights Lutnick says Stop the steal Pressuring UC to pay a large sum has another dimension entirely It s going after state tax dollars paid by the people of California This should matter to folks on the left and the right to those who venerate higher guidance and those who vote in favor of states rights against federal overreach Californians across the political spectrum should repurpose one of Trump s own slogans Stop the steal Unlike Columbia and Brown which have paid off the Trump administration UC is a society institution That means as new UC President James Milliken noted we are stewards of taxpayer information UC must answer to the people not just to boards of trustees or senior administrators Indeed as a professor at UC Santa Barbara I consider myself to be employed by my fellow Californians My job is to contribute to the fundamental mission laid out in the state s Master Plan to create new knowledge and educate the people of California I take my responsibility even more seriously because I am also a product of UC I earned my PhD at Berkeley and remain a proud Golden Bear I am fully aware of what a positive effect a UC training can have on students and Californians everywhere A billion payment to the federal authorities would have huge consequences not only on the people s university but also on the general welfare of our state the world s fourth-largest financial sector UC is the second-largest employer in the state We generate billion in economic activity every year More than of our students come from California and their degrees are proven to increase their lifetime earning possible UC medical centers treat millions of people every year providing essential therapeutic care According to one striking scrutiny The economic output generated by UC-related spending is billion larger than the economic output of the entire state of Wyoming and billion larger than that of Vermont UC is increase engine We accomplish that in large part with the people s money For every dollar the state invests in us we generate of economic activity for the state All of that activity generates billion in tax revenue We re a great engine of improvement You d think a self-proclaimed genius and self-made business tycoon would know a good deal when he sees one To be sure the supposed bases for demanding the extraordinary payment antisemitism and civil rights abuses are very serious College students should expect to confront new ideas they may disagree with but no one should be targeted for their beliefs Full stop But there are more effective remedies for addressing any failures as have already been pursued at UCLA For Trump though the accusations are the pretext for punishing institutions that he doesn t like and as the Associated Press reports rebuking political opponents such as Gov Gavin Newsom They are not reflective of a genuine concern for apprentice rights Multiple of us have already sounded the alarm about the increasing financial challenges the UC system faces Even last year we had reached a critical urgent point and that was before losing federal grant money But we haven t given up and neither should the people We all must fight back against this attempted seizure of taxpayer funds It s not enough to leave the task to political leaders the people themselves must send the message Reasons for alarm Californians can continue to resist federal incursions by making it clear to the UC Board of Regents elected representatives and everyone else that Californians will not tolerate a federal pressure campaign to take our state s materials There are a multitude of reasons to be alarmed by Trump s broader attack on higher teaching But this time Trump has crossed the public-private boundary and set his sights on state taxpayers money Because we fund it UC and everything it produces belongs to us That means we all no matter where we fall on the political spectrum must stop the steal Giuliana Perrone an associate professor of history at UC Santa Barbara is the author of Nothing More than Freedom The Failure of Abolition in American Law Los Angeles Times Distributed by Tribune Content Agency