University of California bars its entities, including student government, from country boycotts

University of California entities, including student governments but not student-run groups, cannot boycott a “particular country,” Dr. Michael Drake, president of the public school system and an ophthalmologist, announced on Wednesday.

In a letter to public school system chancellors, Drake stated that under university policy, “financial and business decisions” are to be rooted in “sound business practices,” per a copy of the letter that the university system shared with JNS.

“This principle also applies to student governments, where university policy provides that ‘any financial and business activity under the control of student governments is operated in accordance with sound business practices and is consistent with legal policies and procedures,’” Drake wrote.

“Actions by university entities to implement boycotts of companies based on their association with a particular country would not align with these sound business practices,” he stated. The system president added that individuals and groups are allowed to express themselves in a way that university entities cannot.

“This letter reaffirms both: the rights of students, faculty and staff to express their views and the university’s obligation to ensure that its units do not engage in boycotts associated with a particular country,” he wrote.

Rachel Zaentz, senior director of strategic and critical communications for Drake’s office, told JNS that the school system “has once again affirmed its opposition to boycotts of companies associated with a particular country.”

“While our community members have the right to express their viewpoints, financial boycotts are inconsistent with UC’s commitment to sound business practices, academic freedom and the free exchange of ideas,” she told JNS.

According to the UC system, the president’s letter reaffirms existing policy as part of new conditions that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the National Science Foundation have set for federal grants, including requiring schools to certify that they don’t engage in boycotts of Israel.

Dr. Kira Stein, chair and founder of the Jewish Faculty Resilience Group at UCLA, which consists of professors, postdoctoral researchers and staff who support the school’s Jewish community, told JNS that Drake’s letter is “long overdue.”

“The foundation for this UC directive has been in place for years, and our Jewish Faculty Resilience Group has long called for clarity at UC regents meetings,” said Stein, an assistant clinical psychiatry professor at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine.

“Since student governments operate with university recognition and student funding, it is both reasonable and necessary that they represent all students and avoid discriminatory practices, including boycotts against the only Jewish state, or any nation,” Stein said. “This directive finally draws a clear line in the sand.”

Robert Trestan, vice president of the Anti-Defamation League West Division, told JNS that the nonprofit applauds Drake “for implementing this critical new policy.” The movement to boycott Israel (BDS) “is far from a campaign for justice,” he added.

“It is a harmful, one-sided movement that seeks to delegitimize the very existence of Israel and, all too often, it normalizes antisemitism under the guise of activism,” he told JNS.

“Policies like this are essential in ensuring that a university’s financial platforms are not exploited to marginalize certain members of the campus community based on their religion or national origin,” he said.

Roz Rothstein, co-founder and CEO of StandWithUs, told JNS that her pro-Israel education group is pleased with the new guidance from the Department of Health and Human Services “and welcomes the recognition by UC leadership of the harmful nature of these boycott attempts against Israel and the ways in which these campaigns are inconsistent with the fundamental purposes and values of higher educational institutions.”

“Boycotts against Israel are divisive to the campus community,” she said. “They are regularly accompanied by deliberate attempts to marginalize and demonize Jewish and pro-Israel students and are driven by the BDS campaign, which has documented ties to terror groups.”

JNS asked Rothstein what she made of UC saying that official entities couldn’t boycott any particular country, rather than specifying Israel.

“It is clear which country has been the exclusive target of recent, unjust and misinformed boycott campaigns on UC campuses,” she told JNS. “For the past two academic years, antisemitic, anti-Israel activists have aggressively pushed to hijack student governments and endowments in service of extreme agendas aligned with Hamas propaganda.”

“These efforts have not only sought to isolate Israel but have often marginalized and demonized Jewish students,” she said. “This statement from UC leadership sends a clear message: any campaign of this nature is inconsistent with the values and policies of the University of California system.”

“We see this as an important step toward restoring equality and integrity on campus,” she added. (JNS also sought comment from the University of California about why it didn’t specify boycotts of Israel in its announcement.)

Aram Goldberg, senior vice president of public relations and media strategy at the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, told JNS that “we appreciate the University of California’s clear stance affirming its commitment to academic freedom, the free exchange of ideas and sound business practices.”

“These values are essential to fostering an environment where diverse perspectives can be shared and debated openly,” he said. “In a time when polarization too often stifles dialogue, we commend UC for upholding the principles that ensure our campuses remain spaces for learning, inquiry and respectful discourse.”

Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, co-founder and director of the AMCHA Initiative, told JNS that the university system deserves praise for preventing student governments from boycotting Israel.

“It’s disappointing that the directive ignores the far more harmful threat of academic boycotts,” she told JNS.

While financial boycotts target economic ties, an academic one “strikes at the heart of the university’s mission by blocking research, study abroad and scholarly exchange with Israel,” she said.

“Backed not only by student groups but also, more importantly, by faculty groups and entire departments, academic BDS suppresses knowledge, silences Jewish and pro-Israel voices and fuels hostility toward Jewish students,” she told JNS.

“AMCHA’s research has shown academic BDS campaigns are a major driver of campus antisemitism,” she added. The UC system “must bar any use of public resources to promote or implement academic BDS, and federal funding should depend on it,” she said.

© JNS