The California State University system told its 22 institutions Friday that the Trump administration had opened investigations into alleged antisemitism and racial discrimination — an escalation of the government’s scrutiny of the state’s vast higher-ed enterprise.
In an email to the Cal State community, Chancellor Mildred García said that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had started direct outreach to some faculty and staff across the university system to “review allegations of antisemitism and to speak with them about their experiences on campus.”
CSU, the nation’s largest four-year university system, said in a statement to The Chronicle that it was fully cooperating with the EEOC during the investigative review.
In a separate federal subpoena, EEOC requested the personal phone numbers and email addresses of all former and current employees at Cal State’s Los Angeles campus since 2023, a university spokesperson confirmed to The Chronicle. While it’s not clear what spurred the request, CSU-LA was among the institutions that played host to a pro-Palestinian encampment last year that disrupted campus life for weeks.
“The university is legally required to respond to this federal subpoena,” Claudio Lindow, a vice president at CSU-Los Angeles, wrote in an email to the faculty. “The university is committed to handling your information responsibly and will only release what is specifically required by the EEOC. This request does not mean that you, individually, are the subject of an investigation.”
In addition to the EEOC probe, García said that the CSU system is under investigation by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights concerning its partnership with the PhD Project, a nonprofit organization focused on diversifying the corporate work force.
“Until 2024, the CSU participated in the PhD Project to share faculty job postings on their job board and increase awareness of career opportunities at CSU campuses,” a CSU spokesperson wrote in a statement to The Chronicle. “However — consistent with the policy the CSU strictly follows in all cases — no student or applicant for CSU employment was given any preferential treatment based on race, national origin or any other protected characteristic.”
The PhD Project has drawn federal scrutiny since March, when the Education Department’s civil-rights office opened investigations into 45 universities, including CSU-San Bernardino — alleging that their partnerships with the organization discriminated against white and Asian students.
The various government reviews of Cal State, as well as the University of California system, focus on alleged violations of Title VI, the law barring discrimination based on race, color, or national origin.
García asserted in her Friday message that the Cal State system does not discriminate against or give preference to any individual or group based on race: “CSU is firmly committed to hiring the most qualified individuals based on experience and expertise alone.”
Meanwhile, the UC system is in the midst of negotiations with the Trump administration over antisemitism concerns, particularly at UCLA, where federal officials have demanded a $1-billion settlement. A coalition including UC researchers sued the federal government over its decision to freeze hundreds of millions of dollars in research grants, largely at UCLA; a federal judge recently restored nearly all of that funding.
