From Polarization to Pluralism: Julio Frenk’s Blueprint for a Safer, Freer UCLA
JUDJ-Prepared Summary from September 25, 2025 | Can America’s Universities Survive the Current Assault? A Conversation with UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the speaker.
In a recent America at a Crossroads discussion, UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk—a physician, global health leader, former Harvard public health dean, and Mexico’s onetime health minister—outlined how he is steering the nation’s top public university through an unprecedented campus climate. The purpose of the conversation: to understand UCLA’s plan to protect Jewish students, uphold free expression, and rebuild trust after a turbulent period for higher education.
A Campus Under Unusual Strain
Frenk took office amid cascading crises—from devastating January wildfires that threatened campus and displaced members of the Bruin community, to the aftershocks of encampments and confrontations during spring 2024. He characterized this moment as unlike anything universities have seen in a generation, arguing that campuses have been “caught up in the general climate of polarization” and must deliberately move from polarization to pluralism.
Principles First: Dignity, Dialogue, and Zero Violence
The chancellor’s north star is simple but firm: universities should process differences “through reason and dialogue—never hatred and violence.” He drew a bright line between legitimate political critique and prejudice: criticizing the policies of a government—any government—is protected speech, while extending that criticism to a whole nation or people crosses into bigotry. For Frenk, this distinction is essential to protect free inquiry and personal safety simultaneously.
Concrete Actions Since Summer
Frenk highlighted structural changes designed to convert principles into daily practice:
- New Office of Campus & Community Safety reporting directly to the chancellor, led by veteran public-safety and community-relations expert Stephen Lurie.
- A UCLA Initiative to Combat Antisemitism to implement task force recommendations:
- Expanded education and training for students, faculty, and staff.
- Easier reporting, including recruitment of a dedicated Title VI officer.
- Clear, consistent enforcement of time, place, and manner rules.
- Expanded education and training for students, faculty, and staff.
- Content-neutral accountability: UCLA suspended Students for Justice in Palestine (undergrad and grad chapters) following an act of violence against a UC Regent’s property—an action Frenk emphasized was about violence, not viewpoint.
He reported tangible results: no incidents involving Jewish students in recent months and no encampments since he assumed the role, attributing that to prevention, clarity, and swift, evenhanded enforcement.
Free Speech, Not a Free-for-All
Frenk reiterated that UCLA defends free speech, including controversial speakers, as long as events comply with established time, place, and manner rules. What is not protected: harassment, intimidation, blocking access to classes, or speech and conduct that create a hostile environment undermining safety and learning. Academic freedom, he added, is not a license to turn class time into political advocacy or to chill students’ dissent through retaliation or pressure.
Why Antisemitism Is an Existential Issue for Universities
Frenk offered a historical warning: when universities tolerate antisemitism, they corrode their mission and lose talent—pointing to the collapse of German academic preeminence a century ago. He framed three reasons to fight antisemitism:
- Protect Jewish students, faculty, and staff;
- Protect everyone else—because once one form of bigotry is tolerated, no group is safe;
Save the university itself, preserving the norms of scholarship and ethics that sustain discovery.
What Comes Next
The chancellor’s focus now is execution and transparency: broadening education, streamlining reporting, and maintaining consistent enforcement so that all students—Jewish, Muslim, and otherwise—experience UCLA as both safe and welcoming. The message to prospective applicants and the wider community is clear: pluralism is not a slogan; it’s a campus operating system.
Bottom line: Frenk’s blueprint treats safety and speech as mutually reinforcing, not competing goods. By pairing moral clarity with practical reforms, he argues UCLA can be an exemplar institution—one that models how diverse democracies argue, disagree, and still learn together.
About America at a Crossroads
Since April 2020, America at a Crossroads has produced weekly virtual programs on topics related to the preservation of our democracy, voting rights, freedom of the press, and a wide array of civil rights, including abortion rights, free speech, and free press. America at a Crossroads is a project of Jews United for Democracy & Justice.