UC seeks to block release of Trump's proposal to UCLA

The University of California on Thursday made a last-minute plea to the state Supreme Court, asking justices to block the release of a $1.2-billion UCLA settlement proposal from the Department of Justice as UC battles faculty members who are calling for more transparency about negotiations with the Trump administration.

- BY JAWEED KALEEM

GENARO MOLINA Los Angeles Times

THE UCLA Faculty Assn. sued after UC rejected its public records requests. Above, on campus last month.

In the California Supreme Court filing, UC asked for an “immediate temporary stay” of a lower court decision ordering the university to give faculty, by Friday, a 28-page document of federal demands for vast policy changes at UCLA that are in line with President Trump’s vision for higher education.

If the information is released, UC said in the filing, it will “suffer irreparable harm” to its dealings with the Trump administration as well as to other potential settlement negotiations in the future with other parties.

UC filed its request a day after an appeals court declined to reverse a lower court’s order that UC release the settlement proposal.

The one-sentence decision signed by 1st Appellate District Division Three acting Presiding Justice Carin T. Fujisaki did not explain any reasoning. In a separate filing Thursday, UC also asked the California Supreme Court to order the appeals court “to issue a reasoned appellate opinion on these issues.”

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.

An Oct. 14 order from an Oakland-based judge gave UC until Oct. 24 to release the document.