University of California, Colorado State University released large amounts of employee personal information to federal government. rebound now

The University of California is facing backlash for handing over employees’ personal contact information to the Trump administration as it investigates allegations of anti-Semitism on campus, heightening tensions over government intrusion into higher education.

At California State University, the faculty and staff union filed a lawsuit in state court on Friday after it learned that the personal phone numbers and email addresses of 2,600 Los Angeles campus employees had been turned over to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which is investigating employee complaints of anti-Semitism on campus. Additionally, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is contacting Jewish teachers in the 22-campus system, sparking on-campus demonstrations against working with Trump.

At the University of California, Berkeley, protesters recently gathered on campus after UC leaders said they released Office of Civil Rights documents and UC police incident reports containing the names and contact information of 160 faculty and staff to the Education Department, which is also investigating incidents of alleged anti-Semitism on campus.

UC Faculty Senate leaders are demanding to know if any other campus information has been disclosed. The University of California has not publicly announced a similar move outside of Berkeley, but has not denied the possibility..

Governor Gavin Newsom has stepped in. The governor said he received a report last week from UC leadership on the data release that made a “compelling case” that UC is legally required to share information with the government. Newsom said he was still “reviewing” the report. The governor also said he might similarly scrutinize the CSU’s actions.

Legal experts say it’s not uncommon for the federal government to request campus data as part of a civil rights or employment discrimination investigation. But what is unusual is the scale of the demand. Colorado State University was ordered to release employee information under a subpoena. The University of California said it negotiated with the administration over its request for employee data — first providing redacted documents — before backing down.

The orders come amid President Trump’s push to align higher education institutions with his conservative agenda. The administration has suspended billions of dollars in research funding and offered amnesty for alleged campus violations in exchange for hefty fines and sweeping policy changes.

Wide scale and scope

Legal experts said they were not surprised by the ongoing investigation, citing years of campus civil rights complaints and the Trump administration’s statements that it prioritized combating anti-Semitism.

Brian Soucek, a law professor at the University of California, Davis, worries that anti-Semitism investigations involving nearly all of California’s public universities are a “witch hunt.”

Suchek, who teaches equality and free speech law, said the EEOC has the power to subpoena relevant information needed “to further certain legitimate purposes.” “The question is whether these [actions] Too broad. “

“Asking for information about individuals and groups during an investigation is as unusual as traffic on the 405,” said Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education. “But it’s absolutely right not to trust the Trump administration.” Mitchell, whose organization represents 1,600 campuses, said schools “are between a rock and a hard place.”

Spokespeople for the Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission did not respond to requests for comment.

Perspectives from the University of California and Colorado State University

Caught between the administration and faculty are campus administrators, some of whom have expressed distrust of Trump’s civil rights investigations. But they fear a boycott would not only be illegal but could lead to devastating funding cuts.

At a recent faculty meeting, UC President James B. Milliken declined to say whether other campuses besides Berkeley share employee or student personal information. At a UC-wide Academic Senate meeting on Thursday, Milliken said he understands employees’ concerns and believes data sharing is routine under the presidential administration.

He said the university would not turn over faculty lists, but a broader document shared with the administration contained personnel information.

Milliken said UC is also working to meet data-sharing requirements in a December 2024 agreement with the Biden administration that has been extended into this year.

The agreement resolves civil rights complaints against anti-Semitism and bias against Muslim, Arab and pro-Palestinian students at the Davis, Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz school districts. It asks UC to share “a sortable electronic spreadsheet” detailing who reported civil rights complaints and against whom for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 academic years.

“Failure to comply with government regulations could result in a significant loss of funding, potentially jeopardizing tens of thousands of jobs, the education of students, the research careers of thousands of faculty, and the care provided by our healthcare enterprise,” Milliken wrote in a recent letter to campuses.

Administrators of both systems say they have tried to resist or minimize government requests and have made strides in protecting privacy while complying with the law.

Colorado State University officials told the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that the Los Angeles campus would only turn over publicly available data, such as university email addresses. But then the campus was subpoenaed for personal data.

This spring, the EEOC also subpoenaed information from hundreds of UC employees who signed letters in 2023 and 2024 expressing concerns about the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and the Jewish campus climate. Teachers contacted by EEOC investigators said the employees informed them of the legal order.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s systemwide investigation into Colorado State University has not yet involved subpoenas to other California State University campuses.

Tensions rise

Faculty, students and unions have pushed back, saying university leaders should reject the administration’s demands, a move that many see as weaponizing accusations of anti-Semitism to achieve ideological goals.

The California Teachers Association, which represents 29,000 employees, said, “Instead of taking a stand against the authoritarian regime, Colorado State University leadership has chosen to be complicit.”

The union filed a lawsuit in state court asking a judge to order Colorado State University to avoid disclosing union members’ personal information in response to a federal subpoena without notifying affected employees and to provide faculty and staff with an opportunity to deny the request.

The University of California, Berkeley, notified that pro-Palestinian electrical engineering and computer science lecturer Peyrin Kao’s name was included in documents submitted to the government.

“They didn’t tell me why I was reported,” said Gao, who suspected the move was related to complaints about an optional speech he gave in 2023 on Israel’s war in Gaza and the University of California’s investment in weapons companies. After the lecture, the school issued a warning to him, saying he might have violated its policy against “political indoctrination.”

“Showing everyone that you can be reported for pro-Palestinian comments really has a chilling effect,” Gao said.

jewish voice

Ryan Witt, president of the Channel Islands chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, agreed. Witte, who is Jewish and recently organized a protest against the investigation and “repression” of the CSU’s free speech policies, believes anti-Semitism is not a “major problem” on campus.

Other members of the Jewish community elsewhere disagreed.

“He shouldn’t be asked to pick on threats that I ignore,” said Jeff Bluttinger, a professor of Jewish studies at California State University, Long Beach, when it comes to Trump’s higher education policies and anti-Semitism.

Bruttinger submitted a report to the committee last summer about events in February 2024, when police shut down a guest lecture he was giving at San Jose State University as protesters demonstrated in the hallway outside a classroom. He accused the university and police of failing to protect his right to speak about Israelis and Palestinians.

But he said an EEOC investigator who spoke to him last month told him the investigation had nothing to do with the complaint, which was closed because it was too old. Instead, it was an open letter signed by Bruttinger in May 2024 to Colorado State University leaders expressing concerns about the “well-being of Jewish and Israeli students, staff and faculty.”

Another signatory contacted by the EEOC last month was Arik Davidyan, assistant professor of physiology at Sacramento State University. Davidyan said he told investigators that “our government has worked extensively with the Jewish community to address our concerns.”

Address discrimination

Some leaders at the University of California and Colorado State University expressed frustration that the administration was not paying attention to efforts to combat discrimination and anti-Israel sentiment.

At the University of California, protest rules have been changed to ban camping, masking to hide one’s identity when breaking the law, and student government boycotts of Israel. A new anti-Semitism training program is underway.

Colorado State University also revised its protest policy and spent nearly $16 million last fiscal year to expand civil rights programs systemwide and on campus. In the coming months, it will roll out a new case management system to track discrimination complaints.

“We are doing our best to address anti-Semitism and address any protected characteristics discrimination that may arise,” said Dawn S. Theodora, the system’s interim executive vice chancellor and general counsel. “We take it very seriously.”

Staff writer Howard Blum contributed reporting.