Trump’s antisemitism review of CSU must be honest, not just revenge | Opinion
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- White House orders EEOC and Education probes into CSU over alleged antisemitism
- Pro-Palestine demonstrations prompted complaints; some incidents led to arrests
- Investigations may trigger fines while CSU faces a $20 billion state budget gap
A new threat now hangs over the California State University system, coming from a place that should uphold higher education: the White House.
The Trump administration will investigate the entire CSU system, which has 22 campuses, for alleged antisemitism against faculty and staff. Included are Fresno State, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Stanislaus State and Sacramento State.
A federal agency, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, initiated a complaint and has started communicating with faculty and staff at universities, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is also investigating the CSU over alleged racial discrimination in faculty job postings, according to Jewish News of Northern California.
The antisemitism allegations stem from demonstrations held over the last year to protest Israel’s war in Gaza that has left more than 65,000 Palestinians dead, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
In its story about the investigations, Jewish News reports on various CSU faculty who have been the targets of pro-Palestinian demonstrators. In one instance, a Long Beach State professor needed a police escort from a classroom at San José State where the teacher was to give a guest lecture. Anti-Zionist demonstrators had made threats against the professor.
Upholding the rights of Jewish faculty and staff against discrimination and harassment certainly must occur, inasmuch as all staff and students at public universities deserve equal protection under the law.
There is no disputing that threats are wrong and should be dealt with appropriately. Free speech at universities must be upheld. But as Trump and his appointees have made abundantly clear in the first year of his second administration, they pick and choose who to back and who to attack with impunity.
The new investigations also raise concerns over the rights of free speech and how it gets interpreted. On that score, Trump and his team have failed basic civics. That point was made in a new ruling in a case of the government trying to arrest and deport international students who took part in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
NBC News reported that federal district Judge William Young, an appointee of President Ronald Reagan, ruled that foreign students enjoy the same free speech protections under the Constitution’s First Amendment as American citizens do.
He also blasted Trump and his top staff for ignoring the Constitution to suit their own ends.
“The president’s palpable misunderstanding that the government simply cannot seek retribution for speech he disdains poses a great threat to Americans’ freedom of speech,” Young wrote in his decision.
From Columbia and Harvard universities to UC Berkeley and UCLA, Trump has tried to bully great American schools that he considers liberal centers opposed to his agenda. My worry is that the same playbook is being tried at the CSU, the largest university system in the nation that specializes in educating students from low-to-middle income families.
The outcome is yet to be determined. But as Trump wages a retribution war against those he perceives as enemies, there are certainly going to be casualties.
Fresno State protest respectful
The right to assemble and protest is as American as apple pie, hot dogs and the Fourth of July — even when the subject of the demonstration is on the other side of the globe. The war in Gaza has been the recent flashpoint.
Shortly after Hamas militants killed 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped 240 others on Oct. 7, 2023, the Israeli military began attacking Hamas strongholds in Gaza. As the deaths of innocent Palestinians caught in the crossfire began to mount, protests against Israel’s military incursions began at American universities.
At Fresno State and Stanislaus State, protests were peaceful and nonviolent. The one at Fresno State came in May 2024 and drew about 250 people. No one was hurt and no campus buildings were vandalized or damaged. Demonstrations at Stanislaus State were much smaller and low-key.
Two protestors were arrested, however, after allegedly vandalizing an office in Cal Poly’s administration building in June 2024 with spray-painted messages like “Free Palestine.” Three other people were also believed involved.
At Sacramento State, an encampment of more than a dozen tents in April 2024 remained in the library quad for a week as a protest against the war.
Was any of it antisemetic? I cannot answer that, as I did not attend the demonstrations. But one thing is well established in American freedoms: Even ugly hate speech is allowable under the Constitution. As the judge indicated, Trump still needs to learn this fact.
Honest look at antisemitism needed
Rabbi Rick Winer, of Temple Beth Israel in Fresno, said of the May 2024 event at Fresno State: “I did not hear any significant reports of Jewish students, staff or faculty who where inconvenienced or put out by those lifting up their voices for Palestinian rights.”
Winer said the enrollment of Jewish students at Fresno State is exceedingly small — less than a dozen. Yet the university offers a minor in Jewish studies, which he said reflects the backing of the university. Students who enroll in the program “explore the diverse experiences, contributions, and challenges of the Jewish people, from ancient to modern times in Israel, and across the global locations of the Jewish diaspora,” the online description says.
Winer said Fresno State President Saúl Jiménez Sandoval “has been supportive of the Jewish community and every student on campus.”
“I believe that the CSU system is doing everying they can to assure the safety of the Jewish community as well as all of the students on their campuses,” Winer added.
As Trump has universities in his sights, it is likely that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) will identify some violations and levy fines against the CSU. The question is how appropriate they will be. Columbia University settled the government’s accusations of antisemitism for $200 million plus a $21 million EEOC fine. That is an extreme penalty.
Any fines for the CSU come when the California budget, which supports the system, is already facing a $20 billion deficit this year.
The investigations into the CSU need to be factual, honest and professional. Partisanship must be kept out. Otherwise, it will be just another retribution exercise by Trump, and that would cheapen any reforms identified by the federal agencies.
