On Sept. 26, CSU Chancellor Mildred Garcia informed the community that the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had initiated a systemwide antisemitism complaint against the CSU. Delfino Camacho | Long Beach Current.
A systemwide antisemitism complaint against the California State University brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has some professors worried about their right to privacy.
On Sept. 25, the EEOC issued a subpoena to California State University, Los Angeles, requesting that all employees turn in their personal phone numbers and email addresses.
“Please be assured that we are responding appropriately,” CSU Chancellor Mildred Garcia wrote in a Sept. 26 email to all CSU employees about the investigation.
According to Garcia’s email, the EEOC has started directly contacting faculty and staff from all campuses to review antisemitism allegations and inquire into their on-campus experiences.
The California Faculty Association, which represents around 29,000 employees across the CSU’s 22 campuses, has demanded a copy of the subpoena to review and respond to.
A systemwide email on Sept. 26 from CFA President Margarita Berta-Ávila advised faculty members not to respond if contacted by the EEOC and to “let them know you will get back to them after you have had a chance to consult with your union or legal counsel.”
“This subpoena raises serious concerns about our members’ privacy,” Berta-Ávila said.
Lucas Wukmer, a mathematics lecturer at The Beach and current treasurer of CFA Long Beach, said it is “disingenuous to consider this probe anything other than an attempt to stifle academic freedom.”
Wukmer is also the communications director of the Caucus of Rank and File Education Workers, an unofficial caucus of active CFA members seeking to democratize the union.
He believes the antisemitism investigation is nothing more than a smokescreen by the Trump administration, which is “specifically trying to control places where history is accurately studied.”
The CFA backs this up, claiming in an Oct. 2 statement that the investigation is part of President Trump’s efforts to curb diversity, equity and inclusion on college campuses, rather than a sincere attempt to address antisemitism.
Anthropology professor Ron Loewe, who is Jewish, has served on three hiring committees at Long Beach State and said he has never experienced antisemitism stories in hiring or firing.
According to Loewe, the “warrantless searching through faculty member databases is a violation of the Fourth Amendment – our right to privacy.”
As frustrated as the CFA has been with Garcia’s complicit nature regarding the probe, there are voices at CSULB and across the CSU system who believe the investigation is warranted.
Professor Jeffrey Blutinger, who is director of the Jewish Studies program at CSULB, is fighting antisemitism on campus as well as antisemites in the Trump administration.
“I shouldn’t be required to choose which threat I ignore,” Blutinger said. “It is a no-win situation, and both result in an end goal that is unrecognizable.”
Blutinger spoke with the EEOC in September, expressing concerns over the consistent backlash he has received for being vocal about the Israeli struggle–especially since the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel by militant Palestinian and Islamic group Hamas.
“I have had my bulletin board downstairs [in FO-2] vandalized five times, there have been antisemitic speakers on campus, calling liberatory Jewish feminism an impossibility,” Blutinger said.
Whereas Loewe called the CSU Chancellor’s compliance an “indication that Garcia is happy to damage faculty and clamp down on freedom of speech,” Blutinger knows many colleagues who are afraid to speak out due to President Trump’s “fear-mongering.”
Wukmer is willing to voice his opinions because he stated, “It should fall on people who are more secure to stand up for people who are less secure.”
While Wukmer, Loewe and many CFA members across campus and statewide are worried about the EEOC accessing their personal email addresses, Blutinger contends that a simple public records request allows anyone to obtain any faculty member’s email records.
Furthermore, all faculty email addresses are publicly posted on the department website, Blutinger noted.
“Zionists have weaponized antisemitism for resource gain, geopolitical access to the Middle East, and their religious purposes,” Wukmer said.
Blutinger said society has “used Jews as a weapon, creating the argument that there is this Jewish conspiracy…and as the values of the society changes, the conspiracy will change.”
For Loewe, he does not consider criticism of Israel to be antisemitic.
All three Long Beach State faculty members seem to view the foreseeable future through a bleak and skeptical lens. Blutinger said he is going to flee the country when he retires in two years.
As of Monday, Oct. 13, there has been no update in the EEOC antisemitism investigation, a process that Blutinger describes as “in fact-finding mode” and might take multiple years.
“People should be cautioned about their legal rights,” Loewe said. “Unless you are subpoenaed, you do not have to respond to requests from the federal government.”
On Oct. 10, the CFA announced its decision to sue the CSU over the disclosure of Cal State Los Angeles faculty personal information to the Trump administration.