CSU Administration Hands Over Faculty and Staff Information to Federal Agency

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)—an agency significantly reshaped by President Donald Trump—has initiated an antisemitism complaint against the CSU system. The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) also notified the CSU—along with hundreds of other universities across the country—of alleged racial discrimination due to interactions with the PhD Project, a private, non-profit organization with the goal of diversifying business education and the corporate workforce.

This is deeply concerning for two important reasons.

First, this is the Trump administration’s broader attack on public education and labor, from freezing federal funding to conducting investigations on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. The EEOC’s complaint is not about ensuring safety; it’s an attempt to intimidate faculty, suppress free speech, and restrict what faculty are allowed to teach and what students are allowed to learn.

Second, this is not a sincere effort to address antisemitism nor campus safety. In fact, the Trump administration has cut vital funding meant for combating antisemitism and has also appointed officials like Kash Patel and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who have touted antisemitic conspiracy theories. This is far less about protecting Jewish faculty and students, and more about silencing members of public universities who challenge US foreign policy.

As CFA members, we are united against antisemitism; it has no place in our communities. We also recognize our campus members’ academic freedom to speak on issues that are meaningful to them, even if we sharply disagree. Safety must entail the right to speak, teach, and challenge authority in ways that move our society forward.

Rather than taking a stance against an authoritarian regime, CSU leadership has chosen to be complicit. Chancellor García released a statement last Friday announcing that our university system would fully comply with the EEOC’s and OCR’s actions. CSU Los Angeles leadership told faculty and staff the day prior that the university must respond to a subpoena to turn over personal phone numbers and email addresses for all employees.

This subpoena raises serious concerns about our members’ rights and privacy. We have demanded a copy of the subpoena and are asking that CSULA not comply with it until we have had a chance to review it and formulate a response. But the CSU told us yesterday afternoon that the CSU has already shared personal phone numbers and emails with the EEOC.

As a result, we will not be moving for a temporary restraining order immediately. However, we will continue to explore whether there are remedies to the disclosure that has taken place as well as avenues to protect against similar disclosures in the future. 

For CSULA faculty who would like to individually inquire if any of their personal information was disclosed, we recommend contacting CSU’s General Counsel’s office and asking for an accounting of information that was disclosed. The Information Practices Act, Civil Code section 1798.25 requires that CSU keep an accounting of all disclosures of personal information they make in response to subpoenas. Kristina Doan Strottman (kstrottman@calstate.edu) is the attorney assigned to CSULA, though she may forward your inquiry to another person or department. 

This is a very troubling pattern of misconduct from CSU leadership. Shortly after taking office, García implemented an interim Time, Place, and Manner policy that has chilled free speech and harassed and surveilled students across the CSU system. Now with the EEOC and OCR investigations underway, our campus communities will face amplified attacks on free speech and academic freedom.

Assembly Bill 715, currently on Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk, further escalates these attacks. California teachers have been adamantly opposed to this bill. If it is signed into law, it will censor educators’ ability to discuss topics that challenge the status quo while undermining genuine efforts to fight antisemitism.

Make no mistake, none of these efforts from the CSU administration, from EEOC, or from this Assembly bill are about protecting against hate; they are attempts to silence anyone deemed controversial. The efforts also greatly risk suppressing meaningful approaches to combating antisemitism.

This is a test of power, and it sets a dangerous precedent that weakens the transformative power of education for our students and the broader communities that we all serve.

Note that the EEOC can only file a lawsuit against the CSU and/or CFA as institutions and cannot target individual employees, though this does not rule out that they cannot use employee names in other ways that may be adverse.

If you are contacted by either the EEOC or the OCR, you do not need to speak to them immediately. You may ask for the name, title, and contact information of the person who contacts you and let them know you will get back to them after you have had a chance to consult with your union or legal counsel. Please be in touch with your chapter leadership or field representative about any contacts or information you receive related to these matters so they can offer support.