Students and faculty in UCLA's Activist-in-Residence program were urged to "unsell and unsettle Mama Earth" and envision "an uprising against the propertied-policed order of 'racial capitalism,'" according to nearly 100 pages of records obtained by the Goldwater Institute as part of a legal settlement with the California university. The records, released after a months-long public records fight that ended in litigation, reveal the programming content of a taxpayer-funded initiative that brings ideological activists to campus to "turn the university inside out." The Goldwater Institute sued UCLA in March under the California Public Records Act after the university refused for five months to turn over documents about the program.
The 92 pages of records include a detailed agenda for the Activist-in-Residence orientation sessions. One session envisioned "an uprising against the propertied-policed order of 'racial capitalism,'" while another discussion on "Organizing the Abolition University" characterized the university as "not only a locus of power but also a critical site of struggle" and called for "freeing the university from its current formation." A session led by activist Lisa "Tiny" Gray-Garcia, titled "Mama Earth is NOT for Sale," focused on "poverty scholarship" and included calls to "unsell and unsettle Mama Earth" within what it describes as a settler-colonial system structured by "commodification and poLicing of Mama earth and poor mamas." Gray-Garcia, a self-described "revolutionary journalist" who is part of the program, has called homelessness a "white man's scam" and referred to Israel as a "kolonizer" guilty of genocide. The Goldwater Institute's original public records request, submitted in October, sought Gray-Garcia's contract, course information, and the program's 2024 orientation materials.
According to attorney Brad Benbrook, who represented the Goldwater Institute through its American Freedom Network of pro bono lawyers, "Public institutions like the University of California exist to serve the public, and it is unfortunate that legal action is sometimes required to achieve compliance with transparency laws." As part of the settlement, UCLA agreed to pay $20,000 in attorney fees to the Goldwater Institute. The report states that although UCLA publicly promotes the Activist-in-Residence program, university leaders initially provided only some of the requested documents and took five months to comply with California law requiring timely disclosure of public records.
The Goldwater Institute argues that the availability of attorney fees is important because government agencies often delay turning over public records hoping requesters will abandon their efforts rather than pursue litigation. The settlement reinforces that public universities must comply with transparency laws, particularly when taxpayer dollars fund programs like UCLA's activist initiative. The Goldwater Institute's American Freedom Network, composed of 1,000 volunteer attorneys nationwide, says it will continue enforcing transparency laws to ensure taxpayers can see how government institutions spend their money. The case sets a precedent that public universities can't simply ignore records requests about controversial programming — they'll face legal consequences and financial costs when they do.