CFA Sues CSU Over Disclosure of Faculty Personal Information to Trump Administration

The California Faculty Association on October 10 filed a Petition for Writ of Mandate and Complaint for Injunctive and Declaratory Relief against the Board of Trustees of California State University in Los Angeles County Superior Court. The case seeks a court order prohibiting CSU administrators from disclosing CFA members’ personal information in response to federal subpoenas without first providing notice to affected employees and an opportunity for them to object. 

We learned from an email sent from the CSU Chancellor’s Office on September 26 that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has initiated a systemwide antisemitism complaint against the CSU and has begun “direct outreach to some faculty and staff members across the system to review allegations of antisemitism and to speak with them about their experiences on campus.”

The lawsuit also seeks a judicial declaration that the CSU administration’s recent disclosure of Cal State LA employees’ personal information, including personal telephone numbers and email addresses, to the EEOC violated Article I, section 1 of the California Constitution and California’s Information Practices Act. We plan to seek a preliminary injunction prohibiting CSU administrators’ further disclosure of our members’ personal information in the coming weeks.

“The CSU leadership is out of step with most Californians, and most people in the nation,” said Margarita Berta-Ávila, CFA President and Sacramento State professor. “While California is leading the nation in our efforts to fight the targeting and harassment of educators, government employees, LGBTQ folks, immigrants, and Black and Brown communities, CSU capitulated without a fight to the Trump Administration’s witch hunt of faculty. We are suing for accountability of the CSU administration and we demand they do more to protect faculty, students and academic freedom.”

On September 25, the CSU Los Angeles (CSULA) administration revealed that the EEOC subpoenaed the university to turn over personal phone numbers and email addresses for all employees. This came after CSULA complied with a previous request from the EEOC for employee contact information as part of the EEOC’s investigation of antisemitism charges. 

We demanded a copy of the subpoena and asked that CSULA not comply with the subpoena until CFA has had a chance to review it and formulate a response. On October 1, CSU management finally responded to our request for information about the subpoena and we were disturbed to learn that administrators had already shared personal emails and telephone numbers with the EEOC.

We are continuing to do everything we can to learn about current threats to our members’ privacy, livelihoods, and freedoms and to develop strategies to protect us all from harm.

Join us in making our voices heard at the CSU Board of Trustees meeting on November 18. We and our CSU union allies plan to bring our demands over academic freedom, funding, and immigration raids directly to the board and Chancellor Mildred García.

Register to make your voice heard and join our collective action here.