The Los Angeles City Council Friday honored Julio Frenk, who became the seventh chancellor of UCLA, and the first Latino to lead the university when he assumed the role earlier this year.
Surrounded by UCLA leaders, faculty, and other members, Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky presented Frenk with a certificate and welcomed him to civic life. The councilwoman said they “look forward to everything that lies ahead of your leadership.”
The City Council previously approved a resolution to celebrate Frenk.
Originally from Mexico, Frenk became a distinguished global public health researcher. He served as president of the University of Miami from 2015 to 2024, and as a dean of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health from 2009 to 2015.
Frenk also served as Mexico’s federal secretary of health from 2000 to 2006, during which he introduced Seguro Popular, a program that expanded health coverage for more than 55 million people. He’s also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the U.S. National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Medicine of Mexico and El Colegio Nacional.
“I often say that UCLA is not just a university in Los Angeles, but a university of Los Angeles,” Frenk said. “Our past, present and future are intertwined.”
On Jan. 1, Frenk formally took over the job succeeding Gene Block, who stepped down on July 31. UCLA Executive Chancellor and Provost Darnell Hunt served as interim chancellor.
Frenk took over a campus roiled by pro-Palestine protests that still continues. Block came under fire both on campus and from as far away as Washington, D.C., over the university’s response to a pro-Palestine encampment and other protests sparked by the Israel-Hamas war.
Frenk — whose father and grandfather were Jews who fled Germany in the 1930s to Mexico to escape growing antisemitism — acknowledged the issues facing the university and institutes of higher education nationwide.
“I consider myself a boundary spanner and a bridge builder,” Frenk said last year regarding his appointment. “And I know that the strength of institutions of higher learning — socially, academically and intellectually — comes from their diversity and from a willingness to cross boundaries.
” … I do think that we’re at a critical moment in higher education. There has been an erosion of trust in institutions in general, including higher education institutions. The biggest challenge for us is to reaffirm our value to society — we have to constantly earn that trust. But the opportunity is huge.”
Meanwhile, Trump administration officials requested a meeting with L.A. Mayor Karen Bass to discuss the city’s response to alleged incidents of antisemitism at schools and college campuses over the last two years.
The Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism informed Bass that it wants to engage with city leadership — district or city attorneys and law enforcement — over allegations that local universities failed to protect Jewish students from discrimination.
Leo Terrell, who is leading the task force and is senior counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights, also informed New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu of similar visits.
“These meetings, in conjunction with our visits to university campuses around the country, are just two of the many actions President (Donald) Trump and Attorney General (Pamela) Bondi are taking to end this scourge of antisemitism,” Terrell said in a statement.
USC, UCLA, Pomona College, Santa Monica College, Chapman University and more than four dozen other colleges and universities nationwide received letters informing them of their need to fulfill their obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits any institution receiving federal funds from discriminating on the basis of race, color and national origin, including uninterrupted access to campus facilities and educational opportunities, the Department of Education announced.
On social media, President Trump threatened colleges’ federal funding for allowing protests against Israel, which he called “illegal.” He also said American students who participated should be expelled.
Universities across the country experienced demonstrations following the deadly Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.
Earlier this week, a group of UCLA students and faculty filed a lawsuit against the university alleging the institution violated their civil rights during these protests. They also named three police agencies as defendants, as well as individual people who allegedly led attacks on protesters.
According to the lawsuit, the Los Angeles Police Department and California Highway Patrol did nothing and failed to protect pro-Palestinian demonstrators and their encampments.
Plaintiffs are seeking monetary damages for injuries suffered during a video-captured clash in which protesters were attacked with metal poles, fire works and other weapons.