Hold onto your free speech hats, folks—UC Berkeley, once a bastion of radical dissent, has just turned over the names of 160 campus members to the Trump administration in a move that’s got everyone from tenured professors to international students sweating bullets.
The Guardian reported that in a nutshell, the University of California, Berkeley disclosed personal information of faculty, students, and staff to the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights as part of a federal probe into alleged antisemitic harassment on campus.
This all kicked off with a federal investigation by the Office for Civil Rights, targeting claims of discrimination and harassment at Berkeley, a campus that’s no stranger to controversy with its history of pro-Palestinian activism.
Last week, UC Berkeley sent out letters to 160 affected individuals—professors, students, and staff alike—warning them that their names had been included in reports handed over to federal authorities.
The decision to comply came straight from the University of California’s systemwide general counsel, leaving many on campus feeling blindsided and betrayed by their own institution.
Among those notified was Judith Butler, a prominent scholar at Berkeley, who expressed outrage, saying, “We have a right to know the charges against us.” Well, isn’t that the rub—turns out, even at a place like Berkeley, due process can take a backseat when the feds come knocking.
Butler, who is Jewish and openly critical of Israel, couldn’t get a straight answer from campus counsel about the specific allegations tied to her name, highlighting a troubling lack of transparency.
Adding insult to injury, UC Berkeley has suspended its usual complaint procedures, meaning those named can’t even respond to or review the claims against them—a Kafkaesque nightmare if there ever was one.
“It is a time to resist injustice,” Butler declared, warning of the chilling effect this could have on dissent and critical thought. Resistance sounds noble, but when the federal government’s involved, good luck pushing back without consequences.
The list of names handed over isn’t just tenured bigwigs—it includes international students, lecturers, and part-time faculty, some of whom could face severe repercussions like deportation or job loss.
Butler herself noted, “The consequences of this compliance could be really terrible.” That’s putting it mildly; for vulnerable campus members, this isn’t just a privacy breach—it’s a potential life-altering disaster.
Meanwhile, UC spokesperson Rachel Zaentz defended the move, stating, “UC is committed to protecting the privacy of our students, faculty, and staff to the greatest extent possible.” A noble sentiment, but handing over names to a federal crackdown on activism doesn’t exactly scream ‘privacy first.’
Students and faculty at Berkeley are now organizing to protest these disclosures, arguing they violate employment laws, threaten academic freedom, and stifle political debate on campus.
This isn’t just a Berkeley problem—the Trump administration has also set its sights on other major universities like Harvard and Columbia, wielding federal funding cuts and settlement demands as leverage in a broader clampdown on progressive campus movements.
While UC Berkeley claims to follow academic senate guidance by notifying individuals of shared information, as spokesperson Janet Gilmore affirmed, “We are committed to transparency,” one has to wonder if transparency means much when it’s paired with compliance with what some call McCarthy-era tactics. Turns out, even the most liberal campuses can bend under federal pressure, leaving us all to ponder just how far this precedent will stretch.
