By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump’s administration has filed an antisemitism complaint against the California State University system, CSU said on Monday, in the latest federal probe into a school over protests against Israel’s assault on Gaza.
The CSU system employs more than 63,000 faculty and staff. More than 460,000 students were enrolled in the system in fall 2024, according to the CSU website.
KEY QUOTE
“The California State University confirms that a system-wide antisemitism complaint has been filed against the CSU by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC),” CSU said in a statement. It said it will cooperate with the probe and said it condemns antisemitism.
CSU, which has over 20 campuses, said the EEOC has subpoenaed one campus, Cal State LA, to turn over personal phone numbers and email addresses of employees.
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT
Rights advocates have raised free speech, privacy and academic freedom concerns over the Trump administration’s probes into universities.
The Trump administration has threatened to withhold federal funds to universities over their handling of pro-Palestinian protests. The government says universities allowed displays of antisemitism.
Protesters, including some Jewish groups, say the government wrongly equates criticism of Israel’s assault on Gaza and its occupation of Palestinian territories with antisemitism, and advocacy for Palestinian rights with support for extremism. The government has not announced probes into Islamophobia.
CONTEXT
The University of California, Berkeley, said this month it has provided information on 160 faculty members and students to the Trump administration as part of a federal investigation.
Trump has faced some legal setbacks in his federal funding freeze attempts at Harvard University and the University of California system. His administration has reached settlements with Columbia and Brown universities, with both agreeing to certain government demands.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; editing by Mary Milliken and Leslie Adler)
