The Education Department announced on Tuesday that it is investigating the University of California at Berkeley over the institution’s handling of a protest at a recent Turning Point USA event.
This latest investigation of a university differs from others opened by the Trump administration so far: The review is being led by the Office of Federal Student Aid and concerns alleged violations of the Clery Act, the campus-safety law.
On November 10, students at UC-Berkeley gathered outside of a campus auditorium to protest what would have been the late Charlie Kirk’s last stop on his “American Comeback Tour.” The protesters clashed with event attendees, leading to at least one hospitalization and three arrests.
The following day, the Justice Department announced it would investigate “potential criminal and civil aspects” of what happened at the protest.
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a Tuesday news release that the Education Department’s separate investigation is not focusing on potential violations of students’ First Amendment rights, but rather to determine if UC-Berkeley violated the Clery Act.
The department’s statement does not specify how UC-Berkeley might have violated the Clery Act, a 1990 law aimed at improving campus safety that’s enforced by the Office of Federal Student Aid. Clery requires colleges to annually report crime statistics and issue timely warnings for on-campus crimes that present an ongoing threat. McMahon said the FSA review will ensure that “a recipient of federal funding is not allowing its students to be at risk.”
Clery has long been a source of confusion for higher-ed leaders, with requirements that are “layered and complex.” The regulations in the 285-page handbook are vague, and following all the rules can be costly. Many colleges, including UC-Berkeley, have at least one full-time employee dedicated to Clery compliance.
Dan Mogulof, a UC-Berkeley spokesperson, said that the university provided “public reports” about two violent crimes that happened outside of the Turning Point event: a fistfight over an attempted robbery and someone being hit by a thrown object. That night, the university also deployed a “large number” of police officers, contracted private-security personnel, and closed off sections of campus “in order to prevent criminal activity, keep the peace, and ensure the event was not disrupted by protests,” Mogulof wrote in a statement to The Chronicle.
Mogulof said that UC-Berkeley will “continue to cooperate with governmental inquiries and investigations.”
In a 2020 Clery case, UC-Berkeley paid $2.35 million to the Education Department after a six-year investigation found that the university had, among other violations, failed to classify 1,125 crimes — mostly related to liquor, drugs, and weapons — as violations of the law in its reporting of crime statistics.
As part of its investigation into the November 10 incident, the Education Department is requiring UC-Berkeley to submit a list of documents, such as daily crime logs and an “audit trail” of all arrests dating back to 2022.
