At the July 17 University of California Board of Regents meeting, multiple speakers described a sudden and "unexpected and unprecedented" loss of federal funding to the Center for Developing Leadership in Science (CDLS), and asked the Regents to deploy discretionary or endowment resources to sustain the center while long-term solutions are pursued.

Kadidi Atiro, who said she works at UCLA's CDLS, told the Regents the center "recently lost federal funding representing 75% of our budget," and said that the contract termination will affect "more than 200 fellows, 30 staff, and over 60 community partner organizations." Aradna Tripati, a UCLA professor and climate scientist who said she represents CDLS, summarized the center's work in community-driven climate research and education and asked the Regents to help preserve the center's core operations.

Speakers asked for several specific responses: immediate discretionary funding to preserve core staff and operations; UC advocacy with federal representatives to contest cuts and protect research funding; and use of internal grant or endowment funds as an emergency bridge. Haley Bricker, assistant communications manager at CDLS, said the center had a grant that "would have provided funding for up to 10 years and represented $2,500,000 of its budget for this year" and outlined similar requests for emergency institutional support.

Graduate and student leaders also warned of broader consequences from federal research cuts. Naomi Hammonds, president of the UCLA Graduate Student Association, said recent layoffs and program destabilization reduce recruitment and retention programs that support first-generation, low-income and historically excluded students.

Regents acknowledged the presentations and several Regents and UC officials later described federal research funding cuts as one of the key headwinds facing UC operations and graduate education. Provost and other officials told Regents the university will advocate for research funding and consider internal bridge funding where feasible, but did not commit systemwide dollar amounts during the meeting.

Ending: Presenters requested rapid, transparent action to prevent loss of staff and fellowships; Regents asked staff to consider options and said they would follow up. No formal action or funding allocation was taken during the July 17 session.